As your team plans its next business trip, you’ll be starting and ending your trip at a major regional airport. You may need to take connecting flights and, if there are weather delays, your two day trip can extend to three days or longer. For busy executives with little time to spare, airline travel is a recipe for disaster. Instead, if you were to book a private jet flight, your trip could be completed within one day, saving your company time, money and travel hassles.

Convenience

Your flight is starting on the east coast, heads to the west coast with a stop over in Chicago and a change of planes in Los Angeles before arriving at your destination in Couer D’Alene, Idaho. Even if your airplane leaves at 0630 from Newark, you’ll spend the better part of the day getting to Idaho with one day already shot.

By hiring private jet, you can skip busy Newark, LaGuardia or Kennedy airports, starting and ending your trip at Teterboro, White Plains or Morristown. You’ll fly directly to Idaho, have your two to three hour meeting, get back on the plane and return east. All in one day. No stops. No layovers. And certainly no hassles!

Choices

When you fly with the airlines, you are limited to whatever aircraft the airline rolls out for your trip. That may not be a problem, but you are still at the mercy of the airlines when it comes to flight planning. Three across seating is simply not comfortable and becomes deplorable when you’re the one that is stuck in the middle row.

Private jet travel means that you choose the type of aircraft that you will fly, subject to weight, passenger and distance limitations. For short-range trips, typically for under 2,000 mile each way, your team might choose a Beechjet, a CitationJet, or a Learjet. For longer range excursions, a Hawker, a Gulfstream G100 or one of the longer range Citation or Learjets might be used. Both groups seat approximately 6 to 8 passengers.

In the larger aircraft category, you have jets that seat from 7 to 10 passengers and have a range of at least 3,000 miles to about 4,000 miles. Various Falcon, Citation, Challenger and Gulfstream jets can be used. For more passengers and a longer range, jets seating up to 16 passengers and with a cruising range of up to 7,600 miles are possible. Choose the right jet for your needs.

Service

Forget the busy airports with the long waits, horrible security screenings and boring hangars. With private jet travel, your trip will typically begin and end at a Fixed Base Operation or FBO, a private jet stop where few jets arrive and depart, and where staff will treat you like royalty.

Such FBOs are located at major airports too, but when you choose to start your flight at a Teterboro or a Morristown, you won’t have to compete with the airliners either. Such general aviation and charter airports are convenient too, typically located closer to business centers than many airports.

Another area where service is much improved is with your cabin service. On larger jets, you can hire the services of a trained corporate flight attendant, an individual well versed aircraft safety protocol and customer service. You can arrange to have meals served, with your cabin crew member ordering or preparing a meal to meet your dietary requirements. Such food is equivalent to what you are accustomed to enjoying at the finest dining establishment, and far better than what any airline’s first class service can provide.

Cost

Clearly, hiring a private jet will cost you more than buying airline tickets. But, there are other points to consider here including travel to and from the airport, hotel stays, food and above all, the convenience and restfulness of your executives. Where some trips require at least a two-day stay, with a private jet you can conceivably fly in and out in one day. Your team arrives back home in the evening, returns to their homes and will be able to arrive back at work the following morning. With airline travel, you just do not know what you are going to get, an unknown factor that can make commercial travel much more a challenge than you want.

Author Information
Alexander Cohen specializes in European jet charters for Paramount Business Jets. PBJ offers competitive aircraft selection of private jet hire in Europe.