pcubed: I’m all for corporate jets, but if I were a financial officer for a company I’d be hard pressed to justify the expense. A Cessna Citation or a LearJet costs four or five million dollars. A Gulfstream, I think, costs about twice that. (Note, I’m going on very vague memory here, as I don’t follow corporate aviation.) Then there are the salaries for the pilots and actual operating costs.
Fortunately, fractional ownership has become popular in the last few years. A company buys, say, 1/5 of an airplane and timeshares it with other owners. We might see more of this already popular program in the future.
One thing bothers me about security in a corporate jet. Security. The pilots may be drawn from a pool, or there may be a subcontractor supplying them. You wouldn’t necessarily “know” your pilot. Baggage handling for corporate flights would not have the security of airline flights, so if someone really wants to get you, they can. And it would be easier to get a hijacker on board since the checkpoints would not be as stringent as airlines.
Getting off the subject of corporate flights and turning to costs, and keeping in mind that I woud like to see more General Aviation aircraft flying, even a Cessna is more expensive than flying commercially. Let’s say you own your own Cessna 172, you live in Los Hideous, and you want to fly to Las Vegas. It’s a bit over 200 miles and you’re flying at 120 knots or so. There’s cliimbout and landing, so it will take you about two hours to fly there from here. A 172 rents for about $75/hour, so let’s assume the actual cost per hour (fuel, oil, insurance, tiedown and maintenance) is $50. That’s a $400 round trip vs. about $100 on a commercial flight. Four times more expensive in the Cessna and flight time is longer.
On the other hand, you don’t have to go to LAX. Just pop over to SMO or VNY (wherever you keep your plane). No paying for parking, no lines, no baggage check, no queues at the x-ray, no sitting around waiting to board, and so on. There goes your time savings on the jet! Also, the Cessna has four seats. If you take three of your friends with you the cost of the trip in the Cessna falls to $100 per person, round trip. And the scenery is better as you fly over the fascinating desert and look out of the large windows. And it’s more fun.
There are thousands of GA airports that are being under-used. I think (hope) that a greater interest in personal flying would stimulate new aircraft sales and reduce the price of the used (and rapidly aging) aircraft market. Making the used fleet less expensive would, I think, attract more people to General Aviation. When I was a kid we’d go out to MYF in San Diego and watch the airplanes take off and land. If more people fly, then there will be more to see and more kids hanging around airports. Kids who will grow up thinking, “I wish I could do that!” Which means more pilots, which means more aircraft… Sounds good for the economy and good for the consumer. And demand might stimulate the design of more efficient engines and airframes. [Ren]Joy![/Ren]