Chartered flight options/costs...
 

I have a couple ongoing projects in Italy that have required travel to Milan every two months or so. Since my appointments usually pop up at the last minute, I’m really taking a hit on flights with (coach) tickets running $4,000-5,000. For that kind of cash, could one purchase a seat on a charter flight? Not necessarily a typical private jet model where you’re paying for the complete charter of the craft (and your responsible for populating the flight to reduce your cost), rather you pay for your seat on an already scheduled charter flight.
Just thinking out loud here; I was recently reading an article about NetJets and the author mentioned a company called SocialAir that has a similar concept to what I’m thinking...though I haven't has much success in researching them. The idea is that for a little more than what you pay for the cattle car, you get a little more legroom, no TSA groping, and an overall nicer flight experience. Does such a service exist.. and if so, am I still thousands of dollars away from experiencing it?

Sarc, oddly enough I was looking at that yesterday. Must look at the history on my browser as there is a site which lists "offers" to share in private flights.

There were none to my destination.

I have chartered on various occasions in the past but it has been for the entire aircraft.

jetcharterpool.com

For reference, last time I checked a typical business jet ran about $4500/hr wet.

If you could split that 16 ways .........

Fractional

Coach $4-5K last minute. Wow..I pay that for business class to Europe, but I usually book weeks in advance.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1311211505.jpg
My brother will fly you there, if you don't mind hiring a "glorified bus driver" (his words describing his job, tongue in cheek).

I'd let you borrow my jet, but it's in the shop. Sorry.

Short answer: No, not even close.

I think you would be very hard-pressed to find a seat (even on an "empty-leg" flight) for less than 5x that amount.

I normally pay about $1200/hr. less on an empty leg. Can't justify higher than that.

Three ways to do fractional. 91K, 135 and full ownership. You either buy a share, buy hours, or buy the plane outright and have it managed. While the share costs alot less per hour, you have to put up major capital. With the hourly rate, it costs $$$ per hour, but you tie up no capital and can simply walk away or renew when youre out of time.

In your situation, going overseas will be a HUGE cost and of the 4 big fractional players, (CitationAir, NetJets, FlexJet and Flight Options) NEtjets is the only one who could do that trip.

I asked around and depending on which airframe you want, youre looking @ $8-12K and HOUR!

Many years ago, my brother was a pilot for a business jet charter service.
He recognized a really rich guy who had chartered the plane several times. My brother half jokingly said, why don't you just lease your own plane and hire me to fly it, and I can do charter overflow to pay for it while you're not using it?

About a month later the rich guy called my brother and said the plane was ordered, when could he start?

Long story longer, the rich guy now has three planes leased to him. My brother flies him around and runs the company for him.
He hires pilots to fly the planes and organizes the charter flights, the planes more than pay for themselves.
The rich guy now has three planes that cost him almost nothing out of pocket, gets to fly anywhere he wants for basically free, and he's making money off of the planes!

The rich get richer because they're smart!

Thanks guys (thank you Juan for the pm) for confirming my suspicions. I guess I'll have to snag a few more projects before I can justify the cost. :cool:

The other option is to fly the unusual routes. For example, Manchester UK and then to Italy, in general use the smaller airports (the Southwest model).