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Aircraft
Charter
One of the most important aspects of chartering is matching
the best suited airplane to each trip.
At Chantilly Air we take the time to discuss the
minute details of your trip with you in order to
recommend the best option for your specific
itinerary. Destination, passenger count, baggage
requirements, and length of the flight are just of
the few things that factor into selecting the best
airplane for your particular trip.
Why not just fly via the airlines?
The airlines often are the appropriate way to go.
However, depending on a specific trip’s itinerary and the
value placed on passenger time and productivity, travel by
business aircraft often is the least expensive way to go
when all costs and benefits are considered. Consequently,
business aircraft often better pass a cost/benefit test.
These employee travel judgments, typically made on a
trip-by-trip basis, are subject to the same cost/benefit
considerations and analysis applicable to any business
decision. There also are some important trips that are just
too difficult and time consuming to make on the airlines,
making the trip untenable and subsequently untaken unless a
more effective form of transportation, such as business
aircraft, allows the opportunity to be realized.
Do business aircraft compete directly with the airlines?
No. Both the airlines and business aircraft are safe and
efficient forms of transportation, but the selection of a
particular travel mode depends upon destination and other
business considerations. Operators of business aircraft
traditionally have been heavy users of the airlines, with
ticket purchases exceeding $11 billion annually.
Why are business aircraft sometimes a better alternative?
Business aircraft can fly directly between any two
locations served by nearly 3,500 airports in the contiguous
U.S. – over ten times the locations served by scheduled
airlines. "On-the-road" costs, such as hotels, meals,
airport parking, rental cars, taxis, etc., can be minimized
by efficient, shorter itineraries. Further, because of the
privacy and quiet (no competitors watching/listening)
available to business aircraft passengers, a lack of
interruptions (no strangers or crying babies aboard), the
availability of club seating and tables (to spread out,
share, work), and access to office equipment, the
office-like environment on business aircraft can facilitate
unusually high levels of collaboration and productivity.
If business aviation is so great, why doesn’t everyone
use it?
Like any business tool, the acquisition and use of
business aircraft is subject to careful cost considerations.
Like all business options, the cost/benefit relationship
must be favorable for the option to be exercised.
Consequently, managers typically use the airlines when
appropriate, or business aircraft when appropriate.
What if the cost of travel by business aircraft goes up?
The cost/benefit equation changes, which changes business
assessments. Common sense suggests that any business
practice that increases in price without increasing in value
will decline in popularity.
What do business aircraft users say about this
cost/benefit question?
10,000 companies already have voted with their wallets.
Are companies that operate business aircraft insensitive
to their cost?
To the contrary, experience has shown that cost is the
most significant factor in the decision to acquire, use, or
sell business aircraft. As with any business decision, if
the costs are too high, the trip will be untaken, the market
unexplored, the product undeveloped, the service unprovided
and the opportunity – and the jobs it might generate – lost.
Deciding how to travel – via the airlines, company or
charter aircraft, or even by driving or taking a train –
involves many considerations. While several of the benefits
of business aircraft are tangible and measurable, some are
challenging to quantify precisely. Progressive managements
routinely consider all the costs and realistically value all
the benefits of every travel option before deciding how to
go. For business aircraft, those benefits can include:
Saving Employee Time
"Efficient employee scheduling" and "employee time saved"
are key advantages of business aircraft use. Because
business aircraft have the ability to fly nonstop between
3,500 small, close-in airports – ten times the number of
locations served by scheduled airlines in the United States
– highly efficient employee time management becomes a very
real benefit. Additionally, the value of employee time often
exceeds its cost to the company by substantial margins,
further increasing the importance of employee time savings.
Simply stated, business aviation helps a company obtain
maximum productivity from its two most important assets –
people and time.
Increasing Productivity Enroute
Employee productivity sustained enroute to a business
destination – in a secure office environment, free from
interruptions, distractions or eavesdropping – can have
substantial value to an employer. Group productivity,
maximized due to the common availability of club seating and
tables, often is unique to business aircraft. Strategizing
before meetings and debriefing afterwards are common
practices often facilitated and encouraged by business
aircraft cabin configurations.
Minimizing Non-Business Hours Away From Home
"Family time" before and after traditional business hours
is critical to most employees. Because a stable, supportive
family can have an acute effect on employee morale and
productivity, scheduling which minimizes time away from home
can be a key benefit.
Ensuring Industrial Security
For many companies, the protection of personnel from
uncontrolled public exposure alone is justification for
business aircraft use. Avoiding eavesdropping, reducing
travel visibility, eliminating unwanted and unnecessary
conversations and interruptions, all support the use of
business aircraft to safeguard company employees and the
sensitive information they carry.
Maximizing Personal Safety and Peace of Mind
Turbine-powered aircraft flown by two-person professional
crews have a safety record comparable to or better than
scheduled airlines. The peace of mind that results from
complete company control over the aircraft flown, passenger
and baggage manifests, pilot quality and training, aircraft
maintenance, and operational safety standards, is
substantial. This benefit also can include the rescheduling
of flights if weather, mechanical or other considerations
suggest it is the appropriate course.
Exercising Management Control Over Efficient, Reliable
Scheduling
The near-total scheduling flexibility inherent in
business aircraft – even changing itineraries enroute – can
be a powerful asset. As aircraft can arrive and depart on
the passenger’s schedule, typically waiting for them in the
ordinary course of business, meetings can be moved up, back
or extended without penalty, risk or unnecessary scheduling
pressures. Overnight trips also can be avoided. If managed
proactively, this benefit can improve business results.
Projecting a Positive Corporate Image
For customers particularly, and often for vendors, the
arrival and departure of company employees via business
aircraft is the sign of a well-run company, signaling the
progressive nature of an organization with a keen interest
in efficient time management and high levels of
productivity. If used for charitable purposes, significant
public service contributions, as well as possible public
relations benefits, also can be realized.
Attracting and Retaining Key People (Customers Included)
The right person in the right place at the right time can
change everything. Finding and keeping those people can
hinge on many factors, including the ability to maintain
reasonable travel schedules, maximizing personal
productivity and assuring family time. Holding on to
valuable employees can also prevent companies from spending
time and resources on training replacement employees.
Reducing Post-Trip Fatigue/Increasing Post-Trip
Productivity
Schedules that require late night travel, or longer than
necessary trips, often result in post-trip fatigue, damaging
productivity in the day(s) after the trip. Because they can
facilitate more efficient scheduling, business aircraft can
minimize this loss.
Optimizing Payroll
Under "rightsizing" initiatives, many organizations have
rediscovered the need to maximize the productivity of the
same or fewer employees to accomplish equal or greater
amounts of work and ensure their competitive position and
long-term success. As business aircraft improve employee
time management and efficiency, they can help eliminate the
need for additional personnel, reducing payroll costs, and
help maximize a company’s competitive market advantage.
Truncating Cycle Times
The compound effect of increased productivity and saved
travel time is that more can be accomplished in less time.
Consequently, many companies attribute reductions in "cycle
times" – when facilities are brought on-line sooner and
projects finished faster – to business aircraft use.
Although challenging to quantify or attribute entirely to
business aircraft use, this benefit often can be
substantial.
Charging the Entrepreneurial Spirit
By minimizing or eliminating many of the barriers to
travel, business aircraft allow business opportunities to be
more readily considered and acted upon. Business cultures
and their strategies change as markets, facilities, and
customers in other, often-rural areas of the country – once
practically unreachable and thus unconsidered – are newly
accessible.
Information provided by the National Business Aviation
Association |
