We are excited to highlight Bob Crandall, former Chairman and CEO of American Airlines, as a distinguished jet card member of Jet Partners. His leadership transformed the airline industry, setting new standards for efficiency and customer service.
Crandall’s wealth of knowledge and experience is an incredible asset to our community. With his strategic vision and commitment to excellence, we look forward to leveraging his insights to enhance our offerings.
Having industry leaders like Bob in our corner allows us to navigate the evolving aviation landscape more effectively. We are proud to have him with us and eager to learn from his expertise.
Welcome, Bob! Together, we aim to redefine private aviation for our valued members.
As we dive deeper into September 2024, the trends in business jet departures across North America reveal a mixed bag of performances across various states. According to WingX, in Week 37 alone, North American airports recorded a total of 47,745 biz-jet departures. This figure represents a 7% decline compared to the same week in 2023, reflecting broader market trends, particularly within the United States.
Focusing on key states, the data shows that Florida, California, and Texas each experienced year-over-year reductions in flight activity during this period. Specifically, Florida’s departures dipped by 1%, California fell by 9%, while Texas saw a decrease of 4%.
Despite the current slowdown, it’s important to note that U.S. biz-jet activity is trending down by 8% thus far this September compared to September 2023. However, a brighter perspective emerges when we look back to September 2019, as activity levels remain approximately 20% higher than four years ago.
Florida’s situation is particularly interesting. While the state may see a 5% decrease in biz-jet activity year-over-year this month, the numbers paint a much more positive story when compared to five years ago – with a remarkable increase of over 70%. Meanwhile, California presents an exception to the upward trend, as flight activity has actually dipped below the levels seen in 2019.
In summary, while the biz-jet industry faced some challenges in North America during Week 37, historical comparisons suggest resilience and growth in certain regions over the past five years. As stakeholders continue to navigate this evolving landscape, it will be crucial to monitor trends and adapt to the dynamic nature of the biz-jet market.
In aviation, private jets and commercial aircraft have similar operating costs. Both are subject to fuel, maintenance, crew salaries, insurance, and respective airport or hangar fees. The primary divergence lies in the costs and how they are distributed.
In commercial aviation, the burden of operating expenses is shared among the 150 or more passengers onboard, making it a more cost-efficient choice for the individual traveler. Each passenger’s ticket price contributes to covering the total operational costs, which include the large-scale operations of fueling, maintaining, and servicing the aircraft, compensating the crew, and ensuring the plane meets rigorous safety standards.
In contrast, the private aviation sector caters to a significantly smaller number of passengers, often just one or a handful. This exclusivity, coupled with the luxury, convenience, and privacy of private flying, is unparalleled. However, these benefits come at a premium due to the absence of cost-sharing mechanisms inherent in commercial flights, leading to a much higher per-person expense.
Ultimately, while the components of operating costs remain consistent across commercial and private aircraft—fuel, maintenance, crew salaries, insurance, and airport or hangar fees—the key distinction in the financial impact on passengers comes from the scale of operations and the distribution of costs. In commercial aviation, the expense is distributed among hundreds, making it more accessible to the average individual. In private aviation, the costs are borne by an individual or a select few, reflecting a trade-off between the exclusivity and convenience of private air travel and its associated costs. This trade-off is an important factor for individuals and corporations to consider when choosing their mode of air travel.
As the airline industry continues to struggle with unruly passengers, incidents have increased up to 5 times in 2021 compared to 2 times pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and 2023, according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The rise in disruptive behavior from passengers has caused major headaches for airlines and flight crews, leading to delays, diversions, arrests, and even the potential for safety hazards.
In response to this troubling trend, private aviation has emerged as a viable solution for those who have the means to travel this way. With private jets and charters, passengers can avoid the chaos and unpredictability of commercial flights and enjoy a more personalized and exclusive travel experience. Private aviation also offers the convenience of avoiding crowded terminals, stringent security checks, and the potential for disorderly passengers.
Additionally, private aviation provides flexibility and the ability to customize travel itineraries to suit individual preferences and schedules. With a dedicated crew and luxurious amenities, passengers can enjoy a peaceful and stress-free journey to their destination.
For those who value privacy, safety, and convenience, private aviation offers a compelling alternative and attractive option for a more enjoyable and hassle-free travel experience.
The Digital Age leaves no industry behind, not even relatively exclusive ones like business aviation. In 2019, it’s professional suicide for a company to ignore data gathering opportunities. This year will see a rise in private aviation companies utilizing intelligence software, and in turn, providing customers with a more modern experience.
What technology will play a role in business aviation this year?
Given that business aviation only claims around 30,000 end-clients, it is difficult for the industry to gather the same sort of large scale data that commercial airlines have readily available. However, more interactive analytics services are stepping out onto the scene, providing a unique opportunity to businesses in the industry.
Tableau — Essentially, tableau allows for data collection and visualization. Once data has been collected, it is easy to consolidate into a digestible visual form that provides insight to businesses.
Microsoft Power BI — This service functions much in the same way as Tableau. Microsoft Power BI also creates data visualizations to help a company assess its current state, and can import data sets from multiple sources.
These services will give better insight into things like buying trends, flight patterns, and fuel usage. They can also present simpler opportunities for assessing safety.
How does this impact the customer experience?
It’s impossible to fix something without knowing that it’s broken in the first place. Analytics services will point out any glaring issues to a company that may have otherwise flown under the radar.
Utilizing this type of service can also allow customers who have chosen to travel by private jet charter to complete an assessment of their experience, which would be automatically fed into the software to produce quantifiable statistics about customer satisfaction.
Analytics services can also be used to create things like flight maps and price comparison charts that will simplify the private jet charter selection process for customers. Providing verifiable data comforts customers by signaling to them that they have chosen to work with a reputable company.
While we at Jet Partners certainly respect and value digital data, we did not need modern trends to tell us how important it is to operate with fairness and transparency.
Jet Partners has long upheld a policy of providing customers with safety reports, should they request them. Third party auditors rate individual operators, as do crew on each flight, so that we can assess whether or not they meet our standards.
Additionally, Jet Partners will gladly offer price comparison data, as there is nothing to compare at all. We will match or beat the price of any other private jet charter company.
The importance of learning more about the business in which we operate cannot be overstated. We are excited to embrace evolving intelligence trends within the private aviation industry, even more so because we have never shied away from relevant data collection.
As trends veer into digital intelligence requiring deeper analytics, Jet Partners is happy to metamorphose while offering the same level of quality, safe, and cost effective service.
