Excerpts from Forbes Magazines ‘The Enlightened Business Traveler’, written by Mark Patiky.

•  ‘The Enlightened Business Traveler profiles businesses and people who are using the tremendous power of private aviation to build their businesses, reduce their operating costs, gain a competitive advantage and help maximize their organization’s efficiency and effectiveness.’

•  ‘Today, tens of thousands of companies and individuals are using private aircraft to get where they need to be on a schedule they set; and according to FAA, the number of private business jets will triple over the next decade.

    While increasingly less effective commercial options partly explain the growth in this travel segment, there are in fact may other reasons behind the migration to business aviation.  One reason is access.  Ed Bolen, president and chief executive officer of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which represents more than 7,000 companies that rely on business jets, turboprops and smaller aircraft daily, emphasizes that business aircraft have access to more than 6,500 airports across the U.S. – facilities that are not crowded and usually much closer to a traveler’s actual destination.  Airlines serve only about 500 or fewer airports in the U.S. and concentrate 75% of all traffic through only 30 major hubs.’
 
•  ‘Financial analysis of S&P 500 peer companies over a 10-year period found those that use business aircraft earned 141% more in cumulative returns than companies that did not.  And, a study of S&P companies found that over a five-year period, companies that used business aircraft had twice the total shareholder return as companies that did not.’
 
•  ‘The easiest and most economical first step toward gaining all the advantages of a business aircraft is typically through charter.  You pay for it when you need it, without any additional commitment.  And, you can charter once a week or once in a while and still have the flexibility to select the best aircraft for the job, whether you’re traveling across the state, across the nation or beyond.
Top charter companies operate according to rigorous airline criteria, train crews intensively and use only factory-approved maintenance practices.  Yes, it costs more, but your safety and peace of mind are worth it.  Charter is the perfect gateway to sampling business aircraft benefits.  For round-trip customers, it represents the most cost-effective way to enjoy the benefits of private jet travel.’