Charters, fractional owner options expand flying choices

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What Lion Heart Aviation LLC is doing is different than either typical chartering companies or fractional ownership.|ret||ret||tab|

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Charters|ret||ret||tab|

Chartering company Aviation Enterprises has a nine- and six-passenger Cessna Citation jet, a six-passenger Beechcraft King Air turbo prop plane, as well as some pressurized, six-passenger, twin-engine aircraft at its hanger at the Springfield-Branson Regional Airport, said Bill Hammitt, vice president. The company brokers trips for passenger overflow or to secure planes with a size or capability they dont have locally, he added. |ret||ret||tab|

For $5,842, including federal excise taxes, passengers can fly a day-long round-trip from Springfield to Hilton Head, S.C., on a six-passenger King Air C-90 turbo prop. Trip costs could increase by a $25 an hour for holding time charges for the plane while its on the ground between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., he added. |ret||ret||tab|

An overnight stay for the plane runs $200 more, plus pilots expenses. Trip time is two hours and 50 minutes.|ret||ret||tab|

The same trip in a nine-passenger Citation S-2 is $7,986, Hammitt said. Hold time for this airplane is $50 an hour, with an overnight charge of $400, plus pilots expenses. Trip time is one hour and 40 minutes|ret||ret||tab|

Hammitt estimates Aviation charters have more than doubled last year and are set to double again this year with the firm arranging between 700 and 800 flights. He estimated the company doubled its flight hours from 2001 to 2002 and will come close to doing that again this year.|ret||ret||tab|

Probably 90 percent of Aviations business comes from corporate clients hailing from the whole southwest Missouri corridor with customers in Joplin, Monett, Lebanon and Marshfield, Hammitt said.|ret||ret||tab|

Fractional ownership|ret||ret||tab|

Phillips said, airplane fractional ownership programs began with the purchase of 1/16th increments. Since then, that unit has become part of the regulatory controls the FAA puts on the industry.|ret||ret||tab|

Partial ownership gives owners the right to fly on any aircraft in Flexjets more than 100 airplane fleet, Phillips said, so you dont run into a situation where you have 16 people calling for the same airplane. Theres about seven owners per airplane, so people obviously purchase more than 1/16th, he added.|ret||ret||tab|

There are six different aircraft types, including four Learjet and two Challenger models, available to Flexjets 700 U.S. clients, Phillips said. Differences between models are aircraft capability and flight range, cabin size, overall comfort factor and expense. |ret||ret||tab|

Pricing is comprised of three primary components, according to Phillips. There is the purchase price or the cost of acquiring the asset or your 1/16th. Next is the monthly management fee, which covers items like crew cost and training, hangering the airplane, and insurance. Third is the variable rate per hour or the fuel and maintenance of the aircraft.|ret||ret||tab|

Phillips said the monthly after-tax cost on 1/16th incremental ownership of a Learjet 31-A is $8,200. This includes, depending on the age of the model, a purchase price ranging from $250,000 to $280,000; a monthly management fee of $4,600; and the variable rate per hour of $1,400. |ret||ret||tab|

For a Learjet 60, the total after-tax cost per month is $12,400, Phillips said. This includes a 1/16th purchase price of $800,000, monthly management fees of $6,600, and a variable rate per hour of $1,800. |ret||ret||tab|

For the Challenger 604, Flexjets premier aircraft, the after-tax cost per month is $19,500. This includes a $1.5 million 1/16th price tag, a monthly management fee of about $11,000, and a variable rate per hour of $2,800.|ret||ret||tab|

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