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Fire Your Airline
The Travel Critic · February 22, 1999

On a recent trip to Cleveland, Umberto Fedeli fired his airline.

Winter weather had frozen air traffic at Houston's Intercontinental Airport, stranding the chief executive of the Independence, Ohio, investment and insurance company that bears his name, along with his wife and four children, for the weekend.

"There was a three-hour wait just to talk with someone at the Continental Airlines ticket counter," he remembers. "Then we found out that the airline had booked my wife and me on a Sunday flight and our four kids on a Monday flight."

Unwilling to let his young children fly home alone and upset at the carrier, Fedeli summoned a private plane to return his family to Cleveland. A Citation III jet operated by Flight Options, a company that sells the equivalent of aircraft timeshares, fetched the family and delivered them to Cuyahoga County Airport in Ohio - just five minutes'drive from their home.

"It's frustrating, all this bumping, changing flights, the huge bureaucracies of a big airline," Fedeli says. "Being able to pick up the phone and go wherever you want, whenever you want, is a tremendous advantage."

Commercial carriers' incompetence isn't the only reason travelers like Fedeli are hiring corporate jets. A recent survey by executive search firm Christian & Timbers found that a majority of top managers "fret over declining service and the virtual disappearance of first-class amenities in their frequent travel schedules."

"True first-class appointments - the four-course meal exquisitely served with elegant table settings - have lost priority in the industry," says Jeff Christian, the company's chief executive. "The space allotted to first-class passengers has shrunk, presumably to make more space for the middle tier 'business class' and thus is so competitive that only those with the luxury of backup time to book the coveted space have a chance to travel in style."

It's no surprise, then, that the $17 billion-a-year business aviation business is booming. The worldwide fleet of private aircraft has nearly tripled since 1978, with steady growth recorded in each of the last 20 years, according to the National Business Aviation Association, a Washington, D.C., trade group.

"It's all about productivity and efficiency," NBAA spokeswoman Cassandra Bosco told me. "You would think that in an era of cutbacks, companies would have to give up a corporate aircraft, but that's not what's happening. People are being asked to do more with less, and a corporate aircraft gives you more time."

The idea of zipping across the country in a private jet, with your own office, a cellular phone, fax and fully-stocked refrigerator at your disposal, may seem far-fetched. But a recent NBAA survey suggests it isn't: among passengers polled, more than half were middle managers or staff. Only 14 percent described themselves as top executives.

Richard Heckman, Flight Options' vice president of sales and marketing, says prices for a "fractional ownership," or timeshare, aircraft start at $100,000 a year, after tax, for a pre-owned Citation II jet.

A package like Fedeli's costs about $312,000 a year. For that you get 100 flight hours per year. But prices on timeshare deals can run upward of $1 million a year, depending on the size of the aircraft and frequency of use.

If you wanted to buy a used Citation II, Heckman says, it would set you back by a cool $2.5 million, not including crew and maintenance.

Some frequent travelers easily spend $100,000 a year on airline travel. Heckman says he's seen companies with as little as $10 million in annual revenues buy time on a corporate jet.

Booking a private jet is a drastic step to be sure. But if you can afford it, why not?

You'll avoid long ticket lines, long layovers, the pandemonium of dealing with the hub-and-spoke system, the rude service, the questionable cabin air, the food - the list goes on and on. What's more, with a jet on call 24 hours, you can leave from the closest airfield and fly just about anywhere.

Can your regularly scheduled airline do that?

Ask yourself these questions to determine if corporate aircraft is right for you:

How valuable is your time? If you find yourself losing hours every week in airport terminals, a business aircraft is worth considering. An NBAA poll indicated that travelers rated the workspace on a private aircraft 10 percent more productive than their own office.

Where are you going? If you need to access areas that aren't serviced by a carrier, a business jet may be a fit. Only 10 percent of airports in the United States are served by scheduled airlines, according to the NBAA. Meaning a lot of regions are out of a commercial carrier's reach.

What is your travel budget? If you only take two or three trips a year, don't bother. A private jet will drain your wallet faster than a couple of full-fare first-class tickets. But if you're on the go all the time, it's worth thinking about. You could end up paying less for transportation, under certain circumstances.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.