Overview:

The complexity of options in private aviation can be consuming. We'll help breakdown the most popular formats to help you find the plan that best fits your travel needs. Before you consider which type of program, it's important to evaluate your habits.

Fractional Ownership:

You buy a “share” of a plane, with the price pro-rated from the market price of a full aircraft. As an owner, you have guaranteed access (50-400 hours annually, depending on your share size) to that plane with as little as four hours’ notice. Fractional owners pay a monthly maintenance fee and an “occupied” hourly operating fee. The latter is charged only when you or your guest is in the plane, not when the plane is flying to pick you up, or returning to base after dropping you off. You have access to the full fleet of planes and may upgrade or downgrade for specific flights. At the end of your five-year term, you sell your share back to the company for fair market value, less a remarketing fee.

Fractional Card and Membership Programs:

These prepaid plans offer the turnkey service of fractional ownership programs, but with a much smaller commitment.

There are two models: the Hour/Plane model and the Debit model.

In the former, you purchase a 20 or 25-hour block of hours on a specific plane, with guaranteed access similar to fractional ownership, drawing from a fractional fleet of aircraft. With the debit model (offered only by Flight Options), you prepay $100,000 which may be applied against any of the three plane classes (light, medium, heavy). The funds are deducted per-flight based on a fee schedule of plane size, time-of-flight (busy vs slow periods), and 1-way / round-trip travel.

Charter Card:

Similar to the fractional card format, you establish a debit balance which you draw against per a pre-defined fee schedule. In exchange for your prepayment, you are guaranteed access within a “call-out” period (4-12 hours), and pay only for “occupied” flight hours. Some charter cards draw from a defined fleet of aircraft, others rely on brokers who work with a network of operators. Charter cards are generally less expensive and more flexible than the fractional format, but there’s a sacrifice in terms of reliability and level of service.

On-Demand Charter:

Traditional on-demand charter has been around almost as long as aviation itself. For each flight you negotiate with a charter operator for all the costs of your trip, including such factors as fuel, aircraft repositioning, crew, and catering. National brokers have emerged in the past decade which can make the search for a charter flight easier, even still 80% of all charter operators are still what you might call “mom and pop” operations, and there’s a high degree of fluctuation in both cost and level of service among the operators. Now online on-demand charter search services such as Virgin Charter are making the process easier, by allowing you to compare multiple offers for your trip request, and it is hoped that they will help to standardize service across the industry.