If you’ve ever spotted a private jet in flight or on the tarmac, you’ve probably wondered which celebrity it belonged to. The fact is that many jets are chartered, not privately owned by a fat cat or pop star, and they’re mostly used for business, not lavish vacations. It’s a world shrouded in mystery, so here are five myths about private jets.

– By Everett Potter, Special for USA TODAY 3/7/16 –

1. You need to be as rich as Donald Trump to fly in a private jet.

“Yes, it helps if you want to own a Boeing 757 in executive configuration like his, but that is not a reality for 99.9% of the population,” says Mark H. Lefever, president and chief operating officer of Avjet, a broker and adviser.

The answer is “no” if you want to charter.

A round-trip flight in a private jet can cost as little at $6,000, says Kevin O’Leary, president of Jet Advisors, which offers advice on private aviation options. “The typical charter costs for a light jet are $3,000 per hour with a two-hour per day minimum,” O’Leary says.  “This would allow a passenger to fly from New York to Washington, D.C., and back in the same day for about $6,000. A round-trip flight between New York City and Naples, Fla., would likely cost around $30,000.  So if you fill the seven seats typically found in a light jet, that is $4,300 per person. These prices are still higher than the first-class airline tickets but you don’t need to be ‘the Donald’ to afford them.”

Before you reach for your credit card, there are even cheaper deals to be found according to Doug Gollan, editor-in-chief of  DG Amazing Experiences, a newsletter for private jet owners and passengers. Gollan points to JetSuite Suite Deals, which are posted daily and start at around $500.

“Last week for $536 you could have flown the next day from Tyler, Texas, to Dallas,” he says “They post the specials for the next day on their Facebook page.” The company recently began offering private jet flights to Cuba, with one-way prices for up to six passengers for $11,152 from Key West (JetSuite says that it’s the responsibility of each passenger to secure their own permission to travel to Cuba, which is allowed by the U.S. government only under specific approved categories).

“You can also reach out to the multitude of charter brokers who don’t typically own planes but source aircraft that are available for charter, and then get five friends and divide the costs,” Gollan says. “Under these circumstances you might be able to do a Los Angeles to Aspen trip for around $2,500 a head. “

Still interested in owning your own jet? O’Leary says that “the purchase cost can be a little as $500,000 with annual operating costs at an additional $500,000 or more.  The major concern is with unexpected repairs. A major engine repair or scheduled overhaul on just one engine could easily cost $300,000.”

2. If bad weather forces commercial flights to delay or cancel, then private jets have to do so as well. 

Lefever says that this isn’t true. Private jets have the ability to land at many more airports than commercial aircraft and to change flight plans very quickly.

“Private jets have the option of waiting it out or choosing an alternate airport,” he says. “The best example is LAX-SFO, a common flight that has delays due to weather in the Bay Area.”

A private jet, he says, “can file a new flight plan and go to Oakland, which isn’t much farther to downtown San Francisco than the SFO airport,” with minimal delays.

3. Private jets are not as safe as airlines.

“There are various ways to compare the stats, but more passenger fatalities have occurred on scheduled commercial flights than on both charter and private jets” in the last 15 years, says Lefever.

Comparisons of accident rates per hour operated show less of a discrepancy, but the reality is that both are extremely safe and safety is always the No. 1  concern for both, adds Lefever.

Gollan says that “I used to fly regularly on NetJets and my pilots were former 747-400 captains for United Airlines and chief pilots for Fortune 500 companies. Most of the major fleet operators that own and operate their aircraft have spotless records.  Most of the fleet on the charter market is used by the owner and chartered when he or she is not using it, so obviously owners want maintenance and pilots at a high standard.”

4. You might be flying private, but you still have to go through security and deal with the TSA. 

No, you can forget about security lines, taking off your shoes and emptying your pockets. You won’t find metal detectors or body scanners. O’Leary says that often “there is no TSA or pre-flight checks required. The pilots may check the ID of the lead passenger, otherwise you will be loaded and on your way within minutes of arrival at the airport.  At some private airports, you can actually pull your car up to the aircraft, unload and have valet (service for) your car so you could be in the air within minutes.”

5. Commercial airlines fly faster than private jets.

That silver blip sailing by your window on a transcontinental flight? Chances are it’s a private jet.

“The fastest passenger jets in the sky are private, depending on the model of jet flown, “says Lefever. “Private jets also fly above the commercial airlines and a lot of times the weather and turbulence that they incur.“

Some private jets have the ability to fly above the weather up to 51,000 feet and “a couple private jets fly near the speed of sound,” O’Leary says. “The flexibility to fly in and out of smaller airports that are often closer to the departure point and the destination airport makes the actual speed secondary to the private jet’s access to nearly 10 times as many airports in the United States. That makes the door-to-door speed significantly faster when traveling privately.”

Source:  Everett Potter, Special for USA TODAY

Traffic climbed 3 percent in January, and projections call for a 9.1-percent YOY increase this month and a 5-percent rise during the first quarter.

Business aviation flight activity in North America jumped by 3 percent last month versus a year ago and could climb much more steeply this month, according to data released yesterday by aviation services group Argus International.  In fact, the firm is projecting a 9.1-percent year-over-year increase this month and a 5-percent rise during the first quarter, compared with the same three-month period last year.

Part 91 activity was up by 4 percent last month from a year ago, while Part 135 charter activity climbed 2.5 percent and fractional flying slid by 0.2 percent.  The overall retraction in the fractional market obscures decent individual gains; fractional turboprop and light and large-cabin jet flying were up 2.9 percent, 2.2 percent and 5.3 percent, respectively. Fractional midsize jet activity fell 2.8 percent from a year ago.

Article Source:
AIN Online, Aviation International News.

Year-over-year flying activity rose across all aircraft categories last month by 3 percent. This surge was led by turboprops and large-cabin jets, each logging a 5.3-percent gain.  Light jets climbed by 1.7 percent, while midsize jet flying eked out a 0.3-percent improvement. The largest year-over-year gain for an individual segment was Part 135 large-cabin jet flying, which saw a 7.4-percent upturn last month.

Air Charter Alert Editor’s Note –  FlightList PRO released numerous Air Charter Alerts this month of reported increases in 2015 business and flying announced by many US charter companies, including XOJet, Delta Private Jets, New Flight Charters, Key Air and others.

Argus’s TraqPak data logs serial-number-specific aircraft arrival and departure information on all IFR flights in the U.S. and Canada.

Source:  AIN Online

Wheels Up King Air 350

Private jet usage is set to take off following the roll out of membership schemes that allow people to make use of jets without owning them.

A survey carried out by industry magazine Corporate Jet Investor found that nearly one in four (23 per cent) said that the growth of membership schemes and online charter is fuelling demand for jets, while companies are becoming increasingly likely to opt for jet membership scheme for business travel.

Rise King Air 200

Jet sharing companies such as Wheels Up and Rise are launching a European service in 2016, and plan to be able to fly people the distance from Edinburgh to the south of Spain.

John Colucci head of Wheels Up Europe, told City A.M.: “Corporate customers are excited about it. We have 250 corporate customers in the US compared to around 2000 private members and we want to do more corporate business.”

Wheels Up members have access to an app that allows them to view flights that have already been booked and request a ride share, similar to car hire app Uber’s Pool service.

The industry is shifting as many executive jets are going on the market at knockdown prices following some of the world’s biggest companies scaling back their fleets.

Supermarket Tesco made headlines when it began selling off its fleet of luxury private jets following its accounting scandal and subsequent profit warnings, putting a 14-seater plane up for sale with a price tag of nearly £22m.

Alasdair Whyte, editor of Corporate Jet Investor told City A.M.: “The last six years have been tough for business aviation but there are lots of people trying to grow the market – especially by making it more accessible.”

The survey reveals that over the next three years, 59 per cent expect aircraft sales to increase, compared to 15 per cent who anticipate they will fall.

The US is likely to be one of the strongest markets, with 81 per cent expecting the number of business flights to increase in North America during this period. In Europe, 54 per cent are expecting a rise.

“When you add up the actual cost and the opportunity cost for executives to stand in security queues or get stuck when flights are delayed, flying on a business aircraft can make a lot of sense,” Whyte added.

Another key reason for growth in the sector is the number of so called high net worth individuals is expected to rise over coming years.

Source:  CITY A.M.