Why It’s Better to Own a Jet Than to Fly Commercially

If your business requires you to fly frequently and on short notice, your travel experience is not at all unique! In America alone, we take more than 405 million long-distance business trips per year. Corporate travel is a trillion-dollar industry. Unfortunately, flying commercially has so many drawbacks that many companies are seeking to do something to improve their travel policies and practices, while still maintaining in-person relationships between international teams, vendors, and other business associates.

One way to solve the corporate travel problem is for companies to purchase private aircraft. While the initial expense of buying a pre-owned business jet seems exorbitant, the benefits quickly outweigh the initial purchase costs. Company executives have found many reasons to prefer private flights over commercial air travel.

First-Class Commercial Flight Costs Add Up
The average business traveler takes about seven trips per year. Of course, this doesn’t account for outliers in the C-suite and those at the Vice-President level, who likely travel even more often to conduct face-to-face business. And when your Executive team is composed of a significant number of people, the cost of first-class plane tickets adds up quickly.

Twenty-three percent of business travelers wait until the week before departure to book domestic trips, not because they forgot or planned poorly, but because of the dynamic nature of business. Tickets purchased last-minute cost even more than standard fares. How much is your company spending each year on airfare alone?

Privacy and Safety of Business Jets
When you fly commercially, you traverse airports with thousands of other passengers, and sit at the gate with hundreds of people with whom you’ll soon be sharing a flight. Conducting business in environments like this is not conducive to productivity.

First, executives often handle confidential dealings and programming that, when worked on publicly, risks a breach in information security. Noisy airports and even executive lounges in the airport are not always the best places to conduct business, especially holding teleconferences.

Secondly, airports are hotbeds of contagions, with all the people coming and going from all over the country or world. Especially during global pandemics, the risk of becoming infected with a virus or other illness is quite high.

When you remove busy airports and crowded planes from the equation, you decrease your risk of coming down with transmittable illnesses, as well as increase your productivity, as you can conduct business privately and securely on a company-owned jet.

Save Time with Private Aviation
Flying commercially with a traditional airline from a major airport is not only a very public practice, it’s also quite time-consuming. Consider the advice to arrive at the airport at least an hour before domestic flights and two hours before international flights. Calculate how long you spend going through security, even with TSA Pre-Check, the amount of time you wait at your gate or in a lounge, and then the time spent sitting in an uncomfortable, narrow airplane seat as you fly. Don’t forget to add up time waiting for your suitcase in baggage claim and commuting from the airport to your final destination. Traveling becomes a day-long task, with very little time to confidentially conduct business.

When you fly on your private jet, you don’t have to worry about getting through security, the airline losing your luggage, or the 30-plus minutes it takes to board a plane. Flights on private jets tend to take off and land more quickly, and because your plane is smaller than a commercial jet, your pilot can land in smaller, less hectic airports to save even more time.

Business jets also tend to be outfitted with seats arranged around small meeting tables, as well as a galley for snacks and beverages, and private restrooms. You can attend or lead meetings mid-flight without fear of confidentiality breaches or distractions, and with full access to the amenities you require.

Commercial Flights Don’t Accommodate Your Busy Schedules
Executive assistants and travel departments within your business work hard to secure seats on flights with the best take-off and landing times. They also try to avoid flights with layovers or stopovers as much as possible. However, commercial airlines simply do not care if their regularly-scheduled flights do not fit well into a C-suite executive’s schedule. Their only goal is to fit and fill as many flights as possible into a single day. If a flight departing at a convenient time for you is unavailable, you must alter your day to accommodate your travel needs. Booking last-minute flights also often leaves you with less-than-desirable flight times, or inconvenient layovers.

With private aviation, your schedule is much more flexible, and you won’t need to sit through layovers or stopovers on your business jet. Although you will still need to coordinate your travels with your company pilot and the airport from which you’ll be departing, you will find that you more often than not are able to secure a takeoff and landing time that best meets your travel needs.

Pre-Owned Business Jets for Sale
Companies seeking to cut overall costs in traveling, including lost time, and streamline their travel practices have found that purchasing a private aircraft is far more efficient and cost-effective than taking first-class commercial flights on traditional airlines. If individuals in your organization are flying at least 150 hours per year total, purchasing a private jet may be the best option for business travel.

The smartest way to purchase a pre-owned private plane for business travel is to work with a knowledgeable aircraft dealer who has pledged to follow a strict code of ethics and earned accreditation with the International Aircraft Dealers Association. IADA Accredited Aircraft Dealers are well-versed in the private aviation industry and can help you identify and purchase an aircraft to meet your business’ needs, from anywhere in the world.

To find an IADA Accredited Aircraft Dealer near you, and to view aircraft for sale, visit AircraftExchange.com.