Owning vs. charter vs. airlines

There is usually a point where it is cheaper to do it yourself than have
someone else do it for you. What I'm wondering is what would that point be
when it comes to trans-world air travel. When does buying your own jet and
employing your own pilots make economic sense than using an airline? Or
will the airlines always be cheaper?

More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji. Each
gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as part of
their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those for the
Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also be an
expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer. The
question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where buying a
private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would there
also be a span between these two options where chartering a private jet
would make economic sense?

Scott Jensen
--
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In article ,
"Scott Jensen" wrote:

There is usually a point where it is cheaper to do it yourself than have
someone else do it for you. What I'm wondering is what would that point be
when it comes to trans-world air travel. When does buying your own jet and
employing your own pilots make economic sense than using an airline? Or
will the airlines always be cheaper?

More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji. Each
gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as part of
their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those for the
Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also be an
expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer. The
question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where buying a
private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would there
also be a span between these two options where chartering a private jet
would make economic sense?

Scott Jensen

It is difficult to beat the airlines on price alone, especially for
travel to well served locations that can be booked in advance.

Hey, they are employees, they can ride in coach.

Now, if you are routinely flying people between locations that are not
well-served by the regular airlines and you do a lot of last minute
travel and you have the right number of people who get first class or
better tickets because they are important enough to get it whenever they
want, then you might make an argument based on cost.

If you want to know what it costs, just hit any of the on-demand jet
travel websites on the net and get a quote for a charter.


Fiji huh?

"Scott Jensen" wrote in message
...
There is usually a point where it is cheaper to do it yourself than have
someone else do it for you. What I'm wondering is what would that point
be
when it comes to trans-world air travel. When does buying your own jet
and
employing your own pilots make economic sense than using an airline? Or
will the airlines always be cheaper?

More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji. Each
gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as part of
their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those for
the
Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also be
an
expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer. The
question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where buying
a
private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would there
also be a span between these two options where chartering a private jet
would make economic sense?


I seriously doubt if private jets make economic sense for even 1% of the
businesses that use private jets. The impression I get is that the ego
factor is what mainly justifies private jets. Of course I certainly want
one.

On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 01:21:11 -0600, "Scott Jensen"
wrote:

There is usually a point where it is cheaper to do it yourself than have
someone else do it for you. What I'm wondering is what would that point be
when it comes to trans-world air travel. When does buying your own jet and
employing your own pilots make economic sense than using an airline? Or
will the airlines always be cheaper?

More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji. Each
gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as part of
their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those for the
Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also be an
expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer. The
question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where buying a
private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would there
also be a span between these two options where chartering a private jet
would make economic sense?

Scott Jensen

I am pretty sure that private jet ownership will lose in a pure cost
comparison. However, to make a fair comparison, one would have to
consider many factors. What is the passenger's time worth? Is there
convenient regular scheduled service? etc. A round trip first class
ticket from the US to Europe can be upwards of $10,000 if purchased at
the last minute. Or you could buy your own Boeing Business Jet for
$40,000,000. Even if only used for one trip, the BBJ could have a net
lower cost. If the passenger takes the commercial flight for $10,000
and the airline gets him there late and he loses the $4 billion dollar
deal, then you can see why he would be better off spending the money
for the BBJ.

If you had a lot of employees who all wanted to go to the same place,
it might make sense. Even then, I suspect that you would have to
factor in the "convenience factor" quite a bit before the numbers
worked out.

"Mike" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 01:21:11 -0600, "Scott Jensen"
wrote:

There is usually a point where it is cheaper to do it yourself than have
someone else do it for you. What I'm wondering is what would that point
be
when it comes to trans-world air travel. When does buying your own jet
and
employing your own pilots make economic sense than using an airline? Or
will the airlines always be cheaper?

More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji. Each
gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as part of
their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those for
the
Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also be
an
expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer. The
question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where buying
a
private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would there
also be a span between these two options where chartering a private jet
would make economic sense?

Scott Jensen

I am pretty sure that private jet ownership will lose in a pure cost
comparison. However, to make a fair comparison, one would have to
consider many factors. What is the passenger's time worth? Is there
convenient regular scheduled service? etc. A round trip first class
ticket from the US to Europe can be upwards of $10,000 if purchased at
the last minute. Or you could buy your own Boeing Business Jet for
$40,000,000. Even if only used for one trip, the BBJ could have a net
lower cost. If the passenger takes the commercial flight for $10,000
and the airline gets him there late and he loses the $4 billion dollar
deal, then you can see why he would be better off spending the money
for the BBJ.

How would the BBJ have a lower cost?

Mike
MU-2

"Scott Jensen" wrote in message
...
There is usually a point where it is cheaper to do it yourself than have
someone else do it for you. What I'm wondering is what would that point
be
when it comes to trans-world air travel. When does buying your own jet
and
employing your own pilots make economic sense than using an airline? Or
will the airlines always be cheaper?

More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji. Each
gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as part of
their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those for
the
Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also be
an
expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer. The
question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where buying
a
private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would there
also be a span between these two options where chartering a private jet
would make economic sense?


The economic justification for business jets is that they can save very
valuable time of highly paid executives. It never makes sense on a cost per
mile basis.

Mike
MU-2

Scott Jensen wrote:
More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji.
Each
gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as
part of
their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those
for the
Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also
be an
expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer.
The
question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where
buying a
private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would
there
also be a span between these two options where chartering a private
jet
would make economic sense?

And the answer is, never. These people are flying coach, to
airline-served destinations, probably purchasing their tickets well in
advance. Those tickets are filler - the airlines sell them at below
cost to keep the seats filled. Plus the time of the employee is worth
nothing because they are doing this travel on vacation, not company
time.

A private jet makes economic sense only when the people are traveling
at the last minute, to destinations not served (or not well served) by
the airlines, and their time is worth a lot.

Michael

"Mike Rapoport" wrote in message
nk.net...

"Mike" wrote in message
...
I am pretty sure that private jet ownership will lose in a pure cost
comparison. However, to make a fair comparison, one would have to
consider many factors. What is the passenger's time worth? Is there
convenient regular scheduled service? etc. A round trip first class
ticket from the US to Europe can be upwards of $10,000 if purchased at
the last minute. Or you could buy your own Boeing Business Jet for
$40,000,000. Even if only used for one trip, the BBJ could have a net
lower cost. If the passenger takes the commercial flight for $10,000
and the airline gets him there late and he loses the $4 billion dollar
deal, then you can see why he would be better off spending the money
for the BBJ.

How would the BBJ have a lower cost?


$40 Million versus $4 BILLION.

On Fri, 01 Apr 2005 15:22:04 GMT, "Mike Rapoport"
wrote:


"Mike" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 01:21:11 -0600, "Scott Jensen"
wrote:

There is usually a point where it is cheaper to do it yourself than have
someone else do it for you. What I'm wondering is what would that point
be
when it comes to trans-world air travel. When does buying your own jet
and
employing your own pilots make economic sense than using an airline? Or
will the airlines always be cheaper?

More specifically, let's say you have a number of employees in Fiji. Each
gets four round-trip flights to anywhere in the world each year as part of
their benefit package. Most will want to use at least one of those for
the
Christmas season to spend the holidays with family. There would also be
an
expected heavier usage of their flight options during the summer. The
question I have is: How many employees would one need to have where buying
a
private jet and employing pilots would make economic sense? Would there
also be a span between these two options where chartering a private jet
would make economic sense?

Scott Jensen

I am pretty sure that private jet ownership will lose in a pure cost
comparison. However, to make a fair comparison, one would have to
consider many factors. What is the passenger's time worth? Is there
convenient regular scheduled service? etc. A round trip first class
ticket from the US to Europe can be upwards of $10,000 if purchased at
the last minute. Or you could buy your own Boeing Business Jet for
$40,000,000. Even if only used for one trip, the BBJ could have a net
lower cost. If the passenger takes the commercial flight for $10,000
and the airline gets him there late and he loses the $4 billion dollar
deal, then you can see why he would be better off spending the money
for the BBJ.

How would the BBJ have a lower cost?

Mike
MU-2

Spend $40 million to get a $4 billion contract, or spend $10,000 and
get nothing. Spending $40 million makes more money. Therefore,
spending $40 million has a NET lower cost.