October 2013 Newsletter

Jet Auditing Lite

You made your air transportation decision and have elected to become an “owner” (as customers are called in a fractional aircraft program) by way of acquiring a percentage of an undivided interest in a specific aircraft via lease or purchase. The fractional provider has contractually agreed what services they will provide and what you will pay for those services.

The contract package with the fractional provider will be very specific in what their duties will be and what you pay upfront, monthly, and per flight hour flown. While the contract package is very specific, how do you know you are getting what you are paying for? Some items are simple, is the plane you requested on time, is the catering as requested, and is the aircraft equal to or better than what you scheduled? Other items can be more difficult to determine.

Is the flight time incurred for your flight billed at what the aircraft actually flew? Was the flight time incurred for the flight accurate (meaning for the day of the flight and type of aircraft flown was the time recorded/billed what it should have been)? Hourly and monthly fees usually escalate on an annual basis, were they escalated properly, was the right formula used? The hourly and sometimes the monthly rates also increase in some fractional programs as the aircraft ages, warranties expire and costs of operation increase. In addition to the annual escalation, the per hour charge usually is increased (very seldom decreased) due to the fluctuations in the cost of aviation fuel. Did your fractional provider use a realistic cost of fuel for calculating the per flight hour fuel surcharge?

So what do you do other than put full faith in your fractional provider that they are doing the right and correct calculations? One way would be for you to spend a lot of time and do a lot of research from any source available to you to determine aircraft speed (time in flight), aviation fuel prices for the month in question and verifying the correct increases to you hourly and monthly are applied as contractually agreed.

Another option would be to hire someone or some company with the experience to review all of these areas. Jet Advisors LLC has a new service called Jet Auditing ™ Lite, this service is based upon their current Jet Auditing ™ service for whole aircraft owners that have elected to place their aircraft with an aircraft management company, but it is customized for the fractional aircraft owner and the structure of fractional aircraft programs. The Jet Auditing ™ Lite service provides you with the ability to have full confidence in your selected fractional program and to ensure you are getting what you contracted for and are paying for. So avoid the worry or the possibility of overpaying and sign up for Jet Auditing ™ Lite today.

 

Aircraft For Sale

1998 Citation Ultra: Major Price Reduction

More Info Click Here

 

2011 Quest Kodiak 100: $1,699,000

More Info Click Here

 

Trip Cost Estimator

Do you want to see family for Thanksgiving, plan for some fun in the snow, or maybe escape to a warmer climate? Our Trip Cost Estimator tool can help you plan your ideal trip. All you need to do is tell us if the trip is one-way, or round trip, where you are flying, your departure and return dates, how many people are flying with you, and what kind of plane you want to take you there.

Planning on making more than one stop? On the Trip Cost Estimator just select Multi-Leg and add the additional airport and date information.

The Trip Cost Estimator will calculate charter, fractional card, and aircraft owner direct operating cost rates for your trip. If you have access to several different aircraft types, you can use our Estimator to test which aircraft might be the best value for your trip.

Want more information or need more help? Below the Trip Cost Estimator form is a short contact sheet in case you want to talk with us about your travel needs. You don’t need to fill out the bottom form to get your trip cost estimates – just press the yellow “Search” button on the right side of the form to get straight to your quotes – but feel free to send us an email or give us a call.