The Benefits

What the NBAA has found that works for most business travelers is a mix of airline travel with business aircraft travel. There are 3,500 airports accessible to private aircraft, over ten times the locations served by scheduled airlines. Travel expenses for executives or employees can be either greatly reduced or alleviated through the use of private aircraft. Saving employee time, increasing productivity enroute, minimizing non-business hours away from home, ensuring industrial security, maximizing personal safety and peace of mind, exercising management control over efficient reliable scheduling, projecting a positive corporate image, attracting and retaining key people (customers included), reducing post-trip fatigue/increasing post trip productivity, optimizing payroll, truncating cycle times for productivity, and charging the entrepreneurial spirit are all benefits of private aircraft travel.

Who Flies?

Statistics tell us that two-thirds of the Fortune 500 own and operate aircraft, and the remainder often charter, lease, jointly own, or employ other ownership options, the vast majority of business aircraft operators, like the vast majority of companies, are not Fortune 500 companies at all, but are more accurately characterized as small to medium in size. But among the Fortune 500, of the top 50 ranked by financial returns to share-holders (in dividends and capital gains) over the previous ten years, historically 90 percent either own or operate business aircraft.

Who flies on private aircraft?

NBAA's survey states that 14 percent are top managers, 14 percent are senior management, 49 percent were middle management, and 19 percent were technical or professional staff, with the remaining passengers characterized as other types. Business aircraft passengers rated their productivity in a company jet at 6.2 on a 0-10 scale which set 5 as the productivity level in an average or typical office hour. Average productivity in a company turboprop was reported as 5.2 while productivity aboard airlines jets was rated as 3.2 and commuter turboprops as 2.1. Their assessment in part may be related to their reluctance to publicly display or discuss their work. Passengers responded that they use a laptop computer aboard business aircraft twice as often as they would aboard public transportation.

The Missions

What type of mission justifies the use of a private plane? One of the most popular uses of business aircraft is leveraging management time and talent by providing rapid access to company or customer facilities and personnel. Sometimes corporate shuttles make sense scheduling employees daily or weekly between major business centers. One of the most popular is bringing your customers to you, many progressive companies utilize business aircraft to import customers, transporting them to facilities or events to directly market company products or services. As business pressures increase the competition for customer attention and time, the offer of travel via business aircraft - providing comparatively efficient access to company sites and information - often can facilitate customer participation in company marketing efforts which otherwise would be spurned. Some companies have taken this philosophy to a high level operating several aircraft solely to import customers. Other statistics have proven that business travel via the airlines has doubled, while the number of flight departments in operation during the same period has tripled. Face-to-face still is the most effective way to sell. Sales and marketing blitzes are a most effective use of business aircraft.