Up, Up, and Away!!!

Do you want to get away from having to wait in line for your 6:30 flight from L.A. to Rio? Tired of having to sit around at the depature gate to see if your flight will depart on time? Sick of hearing those kids screaming all the way from New York City to Rome - even though you're seated in First Class?

Then you have a couple of excellent options to choose from to eliminate those headaches when traveling the world. You can either purchase your own jet aircraft (no prop planes for us at this time!) outright or buy into an aircraft fractional ownership programme.

Either way, you:

- dictate the time you want to depart and, in effect, arrive;
- open up hundreds, if not thousands, of global airports where you can land/depart, with smaller/intermediate private jets;

- potentially increase luggage capacity, depending upon model chosen;

- can customize your newly purchased jet;
- reduce departure time and head aches; and,

- choose your own inflight entertainment and food.

For this posting, I'm going to focus solely on ... purchasing your own plane!! The one real decision factor on whether you should purchase your own jet or purchase a fractional ownership is the amount of flight time hours. It has been suggested that you should be looking at 350-400 flight hours per year to justify owning a private jet otherwise, you should consider fractional ownership.

So, assuming you'll be doing 350-400+ flight hours per year, here are some of the things you'll want to know when making a decision on which jet you should purchase:

1. Passenger Seating - How many people will your plane seat? Remember, you can purchase anything from (for example) a Cessna Citation CJ1+ that carries 6 passenger comfortably in a somewhat tight cabin (back-to-back or face-to-face configuration) all the way up to your own Boeing Business Jet that can be appointed in whatever manner you wish, so capacity could be 12 or 40 (or more for their 747 VIP aircraft), with bedrooms, boardrooms, lounges, and VIP bathrooms with showers.

2. Flight Range - Do you just need something to hop across the US or are you looking at transoceanic flights? Some aircraft only have a range (one way, of course) of 1,471 miles (2,367 kms) with 4 passengers, such as the Hawker 400XP. This will allow you to fly from New York City to L.A. in 3 legs (2 stopovers for fuel). Then again some planes can offer you 6,000+ miles (9,600+ kms) intercontinental distances, such as the Airbus A319 ACJ.

The importance here is determining what type of flight pattern you'll be doing. Will a typical flight be from New York City to L.A. and then on to Toronto? Or, are you simply doing legs such as, New York City to Atlanta and then on to Dallas, etc.

Don't forget that the more passengers you take on your flight, the more fuel will be burned and the less range you will get.

3. Cost - Well, we're not really supposed to worry about cost on this page, but it's always interesting to know what these types of aircraft will set you back. Prices you can expect to pay are:

- Light Jets (5-8 Passengers/2,000 miles range) - $3 - 8m USD;

- Mid-Size Jets (up to 12 Passengers/up to 4,000 miles range) - $9 - $16m USD; and,

- Large Jets (12+ Passengers/4,000+ miles range) - $20 - $100m+++ USD.

4. Operating Costs - Fixed and indirect expenses such as: Fuel and Oils, Crew Salaries, Hangering, Airport Landing/Parking Fees, Food and Drink, and Maintenance and Inspections, just to name a few, all add to your annual operating costs.

Typically, you could see costs of $9 to $10 per nautical mile flown for a Light Jet, such as a Gulfstream G450, to over $20 per nautical mile flown for a Large Jet, such as a Boeing Business Jet.

So, for example, if you've flown your Gulfstream from L.A. to New York City and back (4248 total nautical miles) for a long weekend of Broadway and dining with you, your significant other, and 6 friends, then you've just racked up just over $38,000 USD in Operating Costs (based upon $9 per nautical miles) on that airframe.

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Is all this seeming like a lot of money? Well, if you were planning on taking a lot of vacations with your new found wealth, with or without friends, and were expecting to travel in (at least) Business Class, if not, First Class all the way, then for that same L.A. to NYC long weekend trip, you could expect to pay $17,600 USD for the tickets (NWA through Expedia.com). That is, if tickets are available. If this was a spur-of-the-moment idea, then I doubt you'd get the tickets.


Bottomline: Cost and Time Lost vs Flexibility.


Living the Dream Rating: $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ (10/10)