Let’s face it. Working in an office all the time typically leaves most wanting to be somewhere else at one time or another. Well, maybe more often than not.
And in anticipation of that upcoming vacation, the fact that the school year is winding down and the kids soon will be out for summer, it’s really time to be thinking of some cool destinations in which to travel.
For most, that means calling a travel agent or getting on one of a dozen travel booking Web sites and finding the best deals on airfares. There’s even adventure in that for some obsessive compulsive types who can or will spend as much time shopping for the lowest rates and most perks as they will actually spend enjoying the trip.
But this is where the value of owning one’s own jet really comes in. The hassles are reduced. The plane is at the hangar. The pilots are ready. Lodging and accommodations are easy to arrange. The question then becomes domestic or foreign? Once you decide on that, then the whole mental conversation with yourself changes.
We all know the joy of anticipation that comes from preparing for a trip with the family or with friends. With children, there comes the teachable moments of trying to help them understand the concept of traveling light. The whole teddy bear or Barbie collection isn’t going to be needed at Disney World or when you’re hiking the Grand Canyon. While packing the Wii, PlayStation or the Nintendo DS with a case of games can be fun for the boys, too, bringing 20 games is unrealistic and stands to defy the whole purpose for getting away.
We humans love the sense of adventure. And just like high school seniors facing “senioritis” at this time of the year, there is nothing like the mental countdown and preparation for going on the next cool trip that causes us to really wish that the work week is fast coming to an end so that the trip can begin.
Think back to the last time you walked out of the office just before your last trip. There’s that feeling of elation. You’ve said goodbyes and the receptionist tells you to forget about work. “We’ve got it handled. Enjoy your trip!” How many times have you heard that said? You get home. There’s last evening packing. The excitement keeps brewing. If you have kids, there’s those just-before-lights out questions about what the trip will be like. You go to bed late that night. You dream of what the trip will be like, too.
The next morning, travel day, you awake. If you have kids, even if it’s a 5 a.m. crew call, they all spring to life as though they’ve slept for two days. It’s so easy to get people dressed, suitcases finally packed, loaded into the car. HVAC turned up/down depending on your whereabouts. Lights on timers to make it look like your home. Kids in the car. Alarm triggered. Doors locked. It’s time to go.
Now at this point, isn’t it easier to be thinking about going to your own terminal to get on your own plane instead of going to the airlines?
We’ve said before that there are incredible benefits to flying on a private corporate jet. Without question, such an opportunity has multiple advantages including concerns about time, flexibility, safety and privacy. One need not forget they also can be leased for personal travel as well.
With a private jet one gets to miss out on the lengthy mandatory TSA security screening lines. How many times have you heard to arrive at the airport at least two hours before your flight time when traveling on an airline? With a private aircraft, the relationship is reversed. The plane is waiting on you, not you waiting for the plane.
There are a limited number of places in the world where an airlines aircraft is permitted to land. It’s expanded greatly over the past 50 years, however, there are several thousand more landing opportunities with a private aircraft than there are with airlines. Again, this saves time. Lots of time in either waiting for an airlines puddle jumper or drive time and back for not landing where you wanted to go in the first place.
And then there are the many amenities of flying on a private aircraft. No more crammed leg room. You don’t have to worry about the mysterious person who sits down in the seat next to you who smells funny, acts funny or worse, is a non-stop talker and you’re worn out by their life story before they close the cabin door and ask for everyone to turn off their cell phones.
No, the private jet goes beyond such. There are an array of FAA approved electronics that are being installed on private planes from stereo systems, arm chair televisions, even WiFi computer access.
When was the last time you tried to spread out on a commercial airline and get some serious work done when you flew? Unless you’re in first class, that’s not real easy in coach. If fact, in coach, it’s darn near impossible. Ever sit a couple rows back of someone working on a laptop on a flight and read what they’re working on? That sort of thing doesn’t happen on a private aircraft.
These are just a few of the benefits of private air travel. They also can be vitally important. What are some of the added benefits you see in flying this way over flying on an airline?
They say one of the first things one should ask themselves prior to buying their own corporate aircraft is probably one of the simplest questions of all.
You ready for it? How much time are you spending flying a year already?
Suggestions hold that if you’re going to do more than 350 – 400 hours of flying each year, then it’s pretty well justified as an expense. Few are going to take a plane up for an hour a day, but you can quickly get the idea. There’s a fair amount of flying in the future and we’ve already spelled out the benefits in time savings from having one’s own plane. If you’re not flying this much but still want the benefits of a private aircraft, there are an array of options out there, including partial ownership.
Just like in owning a car, there are up keep costs to owning one’s own aircraft. Insurance, pilots’ costs, fuel, etc. all add on to the cost of owning an aircraft. The costs depend on location and which company used to help manage this end of operations. While most who are actually in the market for owning an aircraft are less concerned as others might be about these additional costs, they are there and something to be aware of when it comes time to purchasing such an investment.
Like everything else, there is an array of options when it comes to purchasing a jet. Are most of your trips short domestic hops with a relatively short rage–say 2,000 miles and just as few as five or eight people, or are you planning on more passengers, say 12 or so, and the ability to fly as far as 4,000 miles? There are different planes and different levels in costs to keep in mind as well.
No matter what level one considers the options to owning ones own aircraft are many and over time quickly balance out the value of the investment.
Last June The Daily Mail in the UK ran a story about what is projected to be the world’s largest, most luxurious private aircraft in the world–it’s a converted Airbus A380 and due for delivery sometime within the next two years. In some ways, from the descriptions, this makes riding on Air Force One look like riding in coach on your least favorite carrier.
Here, we won’t leave you to your imagination about what will be on this fabled plane, which according to the Daily Mail, the owner has yet to be identified but is presumed to be a Saudi prince.
The plane comes with a pull up garage, a large window on the bottom so you can look out at the ground immediately below your feet. There’s five suites, a prayer room that has mats that always rotate toward Mecca. Oh, and don’t forget the private concert hall, Turkish marble tub, and a board room with holographic projecting screens for conference calls with those back on the ground. There are even 20 sleepers for guests. And did we mention the suites also have king-sized beds?
This is an amazing design and the features are incredible.
But we all know from having ridden in coach at one time or another, that not all private aircraft are like this one. Still, what this aircraft will offer that other private jets offer that you can’t get in coach, is convenience, privacy and the ability to go when necessary. And that’s so critical to executives in this day of 24/365 motion around the world. Business deals can be secured and closed with an in-person meeting. Few things matter more than the genuine warmth of a handshake and a look in the eye of another to help ensure trust in a deal.
So now that you’ve seen pie in the sky (you know there’s a bakery in this plane) what features would you prefer in your own private plane? Obviously, we’re talking about the more practical features, but surely some day, some of the features on the Airbus A380 pictured above might make their way into the standard features category. If that were the case, would you be hoping for the glass flooring or the bath with Turkish marble to come first?
Okay, so maybe you consider bad press bad. And after you read about the rant on this guy’s site about how much Steve Jobs is using the Apple private jet to travel the world, or how even some of his travel frequency dropped, you can get to the really good part of this post: The comments that followed it.
The essential point is, like in yesterday’s post, that there’s no question the news media and now certain bloggers are enjoying bashing those who have use of a private or corporate jet. They just love it. Maybe they can’t help it. But the reality is when you read the comments, your average Joe doesn’t care!
Here, see for yourself:
fox1cm said 10:00AM on 4-26-2010
My stocks up, so I could care less about how much it costs or where he’s going as long as he delivers results.
Thanh said 9:57AM on 4-26-2010
Safety, perhaps? Steve Jobs is by no means obscure, or a plebeian- Most people would recognize him, and it would open him up for danger, as well as unnecessary news coverage.
He’s not like everyone else. He’s Steve Jobs! Apple is one of the new companies to remain profitable despite the recession. And that’s largely in part to SJ, So perhaps a few perks are in order. And as long as no taxpayer money is being used, I could care less how he gets around. It’s a private company, it can do whatever it wants with it’s private money.
mike said 1:58PM on 4-26-2010
Do you have any idea why corporate heads actually have private jets like this? It’s obvious from your posts that you don’t. Let me explain.
Most corporate heads, such as Steve Jobs, have access to private jets for business
reasons, and a small alottment of time for personal use that is stipulated in theIr contracts. See the thing with these executives is that they need to be places much quicker, more often, and for more important things than your typical traveler. I know you’ll probaby just reiterate the whole environmental argument (doesn’t hold much water, planes like the GV are much more efficient than most commercial airliners) or say “well why should they get to travel quicker than the rest of us?”. It’s not a perk, it’s a means of doing rapid, high level business requred of these executives. People need to get past the picture of big wigs just flying around to wherever they want whenever they want. Not how it works.
Besides, maybe you think that the President should start flying around on commercial flights, because it’s silly and not green. to have one 747 flying around him and a handful of people?
All very rational rebuttals to the frequent jabs made about the private jet industry, and more importantly, made from real people.
Well, as much as the main stream media likes to write about corporate executives owning their own aircraft, you have to wonder about the proverbial man who talked about their being a plank in someone else’s eye, but couldn’t see the one in his.
Sure, a lot of the big networks will put reporters on a commercial airline and send them to do a story. But in all your travels, have you ever really seen that happen? Yeah, there was the guy in Die Hard 2 who deservedly wound up getting tasered in the onboard bathroom, but this isn’t really how most network reporters travel.
And when you think of the big urban stations what’s the latest thing for them to all brag about? Simple. Not just that they provide daily chopper coverage of morning traffic, fires, car accidents, police chases, natural disasters, tornadoes, and on and on, but also that they now can do it in HD.
There clearly are benefits to owning ones own corporate jet. We still live in a day and age when and eye-to-eye handshake to close a deal means more than just doing so over a conference call. Some times just being there, showing a prospect that they are important enough to you to make a personal appearance is all it can take to land the big one. Just like to the media flying above the scene of a tragedy is something that outwits and out does their competitor stations in a market, or gets them immediately piped in to CNN or FOX News.
It’s time to start calling the news media on this. Owning ones own personal aircraft has value. If you want to see it in action, when you wake up in the morning, just turn on the TV.
To keep you posted on the current situation in Europe surrounding the volcanic eruption last Wednesday in Iceland, almost 20 European countries now have shut down their airspace and officials say, “we’ve not yet seen the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Flight safety is an important topic on the minds of everyone and so is helping share information about this natural disaster that’s wreaking havoc on the airlines industry. It is said that millions are stranded in airports across Europe and flights about the globe have been disrupted by this amazing event.
The BBC has the latest information about the situation and most news outlets are posting updates as well.
In case you’ve missed it, a volcano in Iceland erupted on Wednesday blowing ash and fine particles high into the atmosphere. The news media is reporting that these particles are flour like, but the size of sugar grains and that’s very bad for jet engines. As a result, several countries in Europe have shut down their airports. England and parts of Europe have restricted air flight to emergency flights only.
If you’re on the way to Europe or trying to fly through it, please check with your country’s flight information systems. There are of course alternatives to travel such or trains and ferries, however, CNN is reporting those are largely full.
Heathrow Airport in London is near silent. CNN in Paris says their airport is closed until 8 p.m. tonight and Air France says it’s not going to fly until 8 a.m. Saturday morning.
Bill Voss,the CEO of the Flight Safety FoundationFlight Safety Discussed on FOX News, has been on FOX News this morning to talk about the impact the economy is having an adverse impact on airline flight safety. He says we’re in one of the safest flying periods ever in airlines histories, but with the tighter economy, things are riskier than normal and worse than they should be. This really sounds like the best time to buy a jet of one’s own so that business executives can avoid the hassles of airport security as well as fly in a safe piece of equipment that they own and are assured is safe to fly on.
A recent article from the Orlando Sentinel highlights the fact that the Congress is about to approve legislation that will make airline flight safer going into the future, require greater training for pilots and co-pilots. And that’s good, but there are few things better than owning one’s own aircraft, having a positive relationship with the pilots and knowing that the aircraft is being maintained to personal and FAA standards without the hassle of using an airline.
And, according to the paper, the “economic hardship caused by the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the current recession have strained the airline industry, contributing to inadequate training, pilot and controller fatigue and a steady drain of experience, experts say. Intense competition, incessant weather delays and tight security have applied even more pressure.”
For information about airline safety the Aviation Safety Reporting System provides an expansive database of information.
Now, given the option of flying on an airlines jet versus flying in your own, which would you pick?
