Corporate Aviation

Corporate aviation, also known as business aviation is the use of any “general aviation” aircraft for business purpose. So what does this mean for us as pilots? It notes a major difference from air carriers like the airlines and non-business general aviation. Career paths in business aviation are orientated with the goals and needs of a specific smaller company and not focused on the general public needs.

Working in corporate aviation provides opportunities to become “on call” pilots, only flying when needed. It also means flying to nontraditional locations normally not serviced by the airline. The easiest way to think of what career options are available is to think of what the company business focus is. Survey flights, medical transport, disaster relief are some of the aspects of corporate aviation all not available to the airlines.

With all these specialties, the question has been asked; does corporate aviation actually save money? Is it worth the time? This question has been around as long as corporate aviation and unfortunately, it has some merit to it. People tend to think of corporate aviation as business men in suits and ties, flying to meetings to sign paperwork or taking the company jet down to Hawaii instead of using traditional air carriers. One of the largest culprits of this was the Big Three CEO’s all flying to Washington in separate luxury jets to ask for bail out money from congress back in 2008. It was estimated that each flight cost around 20,000 dollars and enraged the public.

So why does corporate aviation still exist if all it does is burn up money?  The truth is; corporate aviation does save company time and money. First, let’s take the aforementioned example of the Big Three and learn from their mistakes.  CEO from Company A needs to meet and finalize a deal with Company B. Company B is located in Nowhereville Texas, the closest major airport is over 100 miles away. Using the airlines, he books round trip tickets for himself and staff ($2500), rents two cars for him and his staff ($500) and has to spend 2 nights in a hotel with gas and food ($1000). This trip cost the company $3000 and took three days to finalize. Now let’s look at Corporate aviation. The CEO and his staff fly the company plane down to the local airstrip, 5 mins away from Company B and fly back the same day, cost of the trip, $500 in fuel for the plane and 1 day. Corporate aviation is a business tool and must be used properly.

The ability to put people or things where you need them quickly has been the driving force behind corporate aviation. Doctors can’t put a heart transplant on a airliner (Have you seen what baggage handlers do?), miles and miles of pipeline make it impossible to do a driving survey while potential leaks spill out into the environment, and emergency repair crews and technicians can keep any airplane running and on time if they can be flown to the plane instead of having it be trucked back to a repair facility. In the business world, time is money.

I looked at Pentastar Aviation, to see what their business model and practices looked like. Since they cater to part 91 and part 135, I looked into their medical transport division. The Survival flight division is based at the Livingston County Public Safety Complex. The 77,000 square foot facility houses the Survival flight crews and their aircraft. Pentastar partners with the University of Michigan Health Systems, Michigan Hospitals of Trintiy Health, and Sparrow Health System for all their medical transport needs. They utilize three EuroCopter 155’s  and a Cessna Citation Encore, all specially fitted and medical transport vehicles. After talking with some of the pilots and flight nurses, I found that that Pentastar give preference to military aviators especially those with combat missions. The high stress of being a survival flight pilot requires a lot of experience. All the flight crews have to be certified nurses or specialists in a medical field. While the exact hiring policies were not discussed, pilot turnover rate was considered high and rotary wing experience is highly sought after.

Corporate aviation is all about finding the right tool for the job. If it is abused, it costs you money and makes the overall aspect look unnecessary. If it is utilized correctly, business aviation can only be seen as “the unfair advantage” -Forbes

References:

Business Aviation

http://www.forbes.com/sites/businessaviation/2012/08/06/business-aviation-the-unfair-advantage/

Big Three Auto CEO’s

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/11/19/autos.ceo.jets/