On Sun, 12 Dec 2004 08:08:09 GMT, "nobody" wrote:



I had a brief meeting with my CEO last week. Our company spends 80K - 120K
annually on commercial flights. He knows I am a private pilot and he asked
me if I could prepare a comparative analysis of alternatives such as
fractional ownership, outright ownership, leaseback or charter.

I don't know jack about jets. My assumption is that I'm looking at a jet
versus a King Air or similar. We're based in Houston and regularly fly to
both coasts with 3 - 6 passengers.

Me either, but I do know enough to say that outright ownership is
going to be impossible for $100k/year, especially if opportunity cost
or loan payments are considered. The loan payment on most jets will
approach $100k/year. Throw in a hangar rent, insurance, and a
corporate pilot (or two), and you will have hit $100k without going
anywhere. You could probably leaseback the jet to the local
charter/FBO operation to help defray the fixed costs, but I have a
hard time believing a jet leaseback can make it financially feasible.

Charter will be expensive too, but then again, so are the airlines if
the trips are last minute and to out of the way destinations. It is
easy to spend $1000/ticket. If you are flying 3-6 people via $1000
airline tickets, givent the time savings and flexibility involved, a
charter may make sense instead.

2.) There are several business jet models available for 1,000,000 like the
Hawker DH 125, Sabre, Citation 500, Lear 24 and 25, Jet Commander. Short of
looking up all the AD's for each variation of each model, where can I find
an honest review of those models with both pros and cons?

3.) Is $1,000,000 reasonable or should I expect those aircraft to be in
need of some serious work, AD compliance, or expensive upgrades to meet RVSM
certification?

Many of the older jets use fuel inefficient engines that will increase
hourly fuel costs. Also, many older jets are so loud that they are
limited in terms of when & what airports they can use. One other
consideration is runway length. If you are flying to out of the way
destinations, a 350 kt Citation (which requires less than 3500ft of
runway) may be much quicker door-door than a 500kt Lear that requires
5000+ ft runways.

Ops figures for several of the Citation series can be found at:
http://www.risingup.com

Last, I would spend some time at this website - NBAA has published
many articles that address your situation and your questions.
http://web.nbaa.org/public/about/library/

-Nathan