Why don't airlines also do charter jets?

This evening, I watched a documentary on TV about the rise of private jets.
During it, they talked about the rise of charter jet companies. These being
companies from whom you can charter a private jet from a one-time use to
something along the lines of a time-share. Anyway, what struck me odd was
that no airline company ... not even small ones ... are in the private jet
charter business. I've seen other TV programs about private jets or where
they're at least talked about for a bit and none of these ever mentioned
airlines getting into the charter jet business ... or even why they're not
in them. Why aren't they?

To me it would seem to be a logical side division for the airlines to get
into. I'd just treat it as one step up from first class seats. Coach
Business First Class Private Jet. Additionally, they could possibly
take advantage of the quantity discount they get on jet fuel for these
private jets.

Or are they currently in this business and the programs I've been catching
either didn't think it was important enough to mention or didn't know this?

Or are the airlines prohibited from going into the charter jet business by
the FAA?

Or is charter jets nothing like airlines so there could be no synergy
savings?

Or is the charter jet business so much of a roller-coaster type of a
business sector that it would lose the airlines money?

If no airline currently is in the charter jet business, have they ever even
given it a try? If so, I'd enjoy hearing how it went and why they left it.

Thanks in advance!

Scott Jensen
--
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If you'd like to know why, read the white paper at the link below.
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On Mon, 5 Jan 2004 01:23:44 -0600, "Scott T. Jensen"
wrote:

This evening, I watched a documentary on TV about the rise of private jets.
During it, they talked about the rise of charter jet companies. These being
companies from whom you can charter a private jet from a one-time use to
something along the lines of a time-share. Anyway, what struck me odd was
that no airline company ... not even small ones ... are in the private jet
charter business. I've seen other TV programs about private jets or where
they're at least talked about for a bit and none of these ever mentioned
airlines getting into the charter jet business ... or even why they're not
in them. Why aren't they?

To me it would seem to be a logical side division for the airlines to get
into. I'd just treat it as one step up from first class seats. Coach
Business First Class Private Jet. Additionally, they could possibly
take advantage of the quantity discount they get on jet fuel for these
private jets.

Or are they currently in this business and the programs I've been catching
either didn't think it was important enough to mention or didn't know this?

Or are the airlines prohibited from going into the charter jet business by
the FAA?

Or is charter jets nothing like airlines so there could be no synergy
savings?

Or is the charter jet business so much of a roller-coaster type of a
business sector that it would lose the airlines money?

If no airline currently is in the charter jet business, have they ever even
given it a try? If so, I'd enjoy hearing how it went and why they left it.

Thanks in advance!

Scott Jensen

In Canada, Westjet and Skyservice run charters to seasonal
destinations around the Carribean, Cuba, Vegas etc. I'm sure any
airline would let you have the run of any aircraft for the right
price.

The luxury configuration and flexibility of companies like NetJets and
Flexjet are what make them attractive. With a timeshare you need only
give 24 hrs notice and they'll bring you a jet capable of taking you
wherever in the world you want to go. Airlines can't meet this level
of service/price.

"Scott T. Jensen" wrote:

Or are they currently in this business and the programs I've been catching
either didn't think it was important enough to mention or didn't know this?

The programs just didn't mention the service. The airlines will all
charter a full size jet to anybody with the necessary cash, and many are
in the business jet market. Here is a link to Delta's charter division,
as an example:

http://www.airelite.com/

James Robinson wrote:

"Scott T. Jensen" wrote:

Or are they currently in this business and the programs I've been catching
either didn't think it was important enough to mention or didn't know this?

The programs just didn't mention the service. The airlines will all
charter a full size jet to anybody with the necessary cash, and many are
in the business jet market. Here is a link to Delta's charter division,
as an example:

http://www.airelite.com/

I should also have mentioned that when United set up its charter jet
division, there was a huge amount of criticism about the money that was
spent on purchasing the new aircraft, when the main carrier was in such
financial trouble. Here is an article that was written when they
announced the new division:

http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m.../article.jhtml

"Scott T. Jensen" wrote in message
...
Anyway, what struck me odd was
that no airline company ... not even small ones ... are in the private jet
charter business. I've seen other TV programs about private jets or where
they're at least talked about for a bit and none of these ever mentioned
airlines getting into the charter jet business ... or even why they're not
in them. Why aren't they?

I guess the main issue is that airlines exist to fly people to and from
places, not to rent aeroplanes and crew to other companies, and to move away
from one's core business is often a bad move. Your average airline will have
purchased or leased only as many aircraft as it requires to fill its
services, because to have aircraft sitting on the ground waiting for charter
rentals to come along is bad economics - if you're running your airline at
all well, you shouldn't have any "spare" aircraft available for charter.

If you're going to run a charter operation you need to aim high. You can't
get by with one or two aircraft available infrequently, because your clients
will want to be able to rely on aircraft supply to a reasonable extent. But
you can't keep aircraft hanging about just in case they're needed, as this
incurs maintenance and hangarage costs. Okay, you'll have some customers who
give you regular bookings, but even if you manage to land a regular
two-flights-a-week contract from, say, London to Majorca, this may become
only one flight a week in the winter, and you're stuck with an aircraft
that's not being used. The economics start to become attractive when you
have a decent size pool of aircraft serving a healthy collection of clients
in a variety of markets (so that the same hardware and personnel can be used
by a number of different people serving different markets, and thus be
required by each at a different time of year).

This said, I can think of at least one example of a large airline making
money from charters on its aircraft: British Airways used to rent out its
Concordes and crews to charter companies. Concorde was, however, an
exception to the rule of aircraft inventories - BA was stuck with a handful
of Concordes, and it made sense to charter them out instead of having them
sitting in hangars costing money to maintain.

Dave

Airlines do charter jets all the time, and some are in the luxury private
type jet charters.



"Scott T. Jensen" wrote in message
...
This evening, I watched a documentary on TV about the rise of private
jets.
During it, they talked about the rise of charter jet companies. These
being
companies from whom you can charter a private jet from a one-time use to
something along the lines of a time-share. Anyway, what struck me odd was
that no airline company ... not even small ones ... are in the private jet
charter business. I've seen other TV programs about private jets or where
they're at least talked about for a bit and none of these ever mentioned
airlines getting into the charter jet business ... or even why they're not
in them. Why aren't they?

To me it would seem to be a logical side division for the airlines to get
into. I'd just treat it as one step up from first class seats. Coach
Business First Class Private Jet. Additionally, they could possibly
take advantage of the quantity discount they get on jet fuel for these
private jets.

Or are they currently in this business and the programs I've been catching
either didn't think it was important enough to mention or didn't know
this?

Or are the airlines prohibited from going into the charter jet business by
the FAA?

Or is charter jets nothing like airlines so there could be no synergy
savings?

Or is the charter jet business so much of a roller-coaster type of a
business sector that it would lose the airlines money?

If no airline currently is in the charter jet business, have they ever
even
given it a try? If so, I'd enjoy hearing how it went and why they left
it.

Thanks in advance!

Scott Jensen
--
Peer-to-peer networking (a.k.a. file-sharing) is entertainment's future.
If you'd like to know why, read the white paper at the link below.
http://www.nonesuch.org/p2prevolution.pdf

"Scott T. Jensen" wrote in message ...
Anyway, what struck me odd was
that no airline company ... not even small ones ... are in the private jet
charter business.

Some have in the past for the larger aircraft. For a while, Presidential airlines was staying
in business flying charters for democratic candidates in the primaries.

"Ron Natalie" wrote
Some have in the past for the larger aircraft.
For a while, Presidential airlines was staying
in business flying charters for democratic
candidates in the primaries.

When I joined PanAm in 1967, in addition to being the world's
largest international aircarrier, it was also the world's
largest charter aircarrier and the world's largest cargo air-
carrier. The 30 B-707 freighters were sold when the B-747s
arrived starting in 1970. The theory being that in addition
to a full load of passengers, the 747 belly would hold a load
of cargo equivalent to a 707. Unfortunately, the companies
that bought the freighters could afford to fly freight much
cheaper than could PanAm. The Teamster cargo handlers at JFK
didn't help the situation either, they stole at least 10% of
everything that passed through the JFK cargo terminal.

One of our "standing" charters was flying the presidential press
corp when they followed the president. We had about a dozen
selected flight attendants just for those flights.

During the three times that I was furloughed from PanAm, I flew
for half-a-dozen charter airlines that had bought the same 707s
that I had been flying at PanAm. Their cost was about half of
that at PanAm.....unions and all of that sort of stuff.

It just wasn't in PanAm's corporate structure to forsee that in
the future, cargo and low-cost travel would dominate.

Bob Moore
PanAm (retired)

"James Robinson" wrote:
James Robinson wrote:
"Scott T. Jensen" wrote:
Or are they currently in this business and the programs I've
been catching either didn't think it was important enough to
mention or didn't know this?

The programs just didn't mention the service. The airlines will
all charter a full size jet to anybody with the necessary cash,
and many are in the business jet market. Here is a link to
Delta's charter division, as an example:

http://www.airelite.com/

Thanks for the information.

I should also have mentioned that when United set up its charter
jet division, there was a huge amount of criticism about the money
that was spent on purchasing the new aircraft, when the main
carrier was in such financial trouble.

I looked all over the United Airline website and found nothing that linked
to their private jet charter business. In doing a Google search on this, I
only found news articles about the service but no website for it. Has
United's charter business since been cancelled?

Scott Jensen
--
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Volunteer your computer for folding-protein research for when it's idle.
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"Robert Moore" wrote in message . 6...
The Teamster cargo handlers at JFK
didn't help the situation either, they stole at least 10% of
everything that passed through the JFK cargo terminal.

Wasn't just the teamsters. Ever read Harry Hill's books. The mob
used JFK as their personal one-stop shopping for larceny.

It just wasn't in PanAm's corporate structure to forsee that in
the future, cargo and low-cost travel would dominate.

Yep, I was a Pan Am traveler in the 70's. Old flight 101 from NY
to Rio and a 707 three stopper from Nairobi back to NY (20 hours
I think, longest flight I've ever been on).

My father was counsel to Martin Shugrue in the Eastern bankruptcy
days and I believe in the "new Pan Am" days as well.