Dallas executive Jim Graham typically visits his home in Snowmass four or five times a year, but getting there can be a problem.
Limited flights into Aspen have “made it a real pain,” said Graham, president and chairman of Palo Petroleum in Dallas.
In past years he has driven, flown on commercial airlines and chartered his own plane, but on June 30 he used an unusual type of private jet service.
Graham, his wife and their dog, Babe, arrived on a Gulfstream jet with seven other travelers willing to pay $3,500 apiece for the round trip. On their way home, the Grahams were the only passengers on a Learjet.
Dallas-based Perfect Jet is offering the latest in a string of flight alternatives designed to appeal to the well-heeled but jetless. While other companies require customers to charter an entire plane or buy part of a jet, Perfect Jet has targeted travelers who want no more commitment than a luxury trip between Aspen and Dallas.
Graham liked the convenience, the service and Perfect Jet’s willingness to treat Babe like royalty. But like most other businessmen, he weighs the costs against the benefits of his Colorado journeys. Flying on Perfect Jet’s inaugural flight cost a lot less than chartering his own plane or sharing one with other owners.
“Compared to flying first class, it might have been maybe twice the cost,” Graham said.
Leisure travelers like Graham are just one slice of the growing niche market being courted by aviation entrepreneurs.
Aspen stockbroker Scott Lambert owns a share in a five-seat jet because it reduces the stress of his business travel. And Re/Max International chairman and co-founder Dave Liniger keeps his employees moving efficiently around the globe by combining use of the corporate plane with NetJets fractional shares on three different jets and seats on commercial airlines.
The annoyances of commercial air travel – early arrival policies, long security lines, cramped planes and crowded airports – can seem unbearable to frequent travelers to whom price is insignificant and time is money.
Those who can afford to, buy their own planes, said Jodie Brown, president of Evergreen-based Summit Solutions LLC, an aviation recruiting and training company. “If you can’t get your own airplane, you can get a fraction of your own airplane. If you can’t get a fraction of your own airplane, then you’re going to charter.”
The market for all these options appears to be healthy. Fifty percent of charter operators surveyed by the Air Charter Guide last year said they wanted to expand their aircraft fleets. And according to the National Business Aviation Association, the fractional ownership market has grown from three owners in 1986 to 6,217 in 2004.
The market for fractional jets has “likely matured,” said association spokesman Dan Hubbard. But Honeywell Aerospace forecasts 7,000 share owners and 1,200 aircraft in the fractional ownership fleet by 2007.
As an institutional stock broker for JonesTrading, Lambert travels once or twice a month from his home base in Aspen. Yet during the winter, there’s a good chance bad weather will delay or cancel his flights.
“My job is fairly stressful in the first place, so anything I can do to make my life less stressful seems to be worth it,” he said.
Lambert bought a one-eighth share from CitationShares that allows him to fly out of airports in Aspen, Rifle, Eagle-Vail or Denver. “I’m certain that I’m going to get there. That, to me, means everything in the world,” he said.
Lambert makes a seven-figure salary and considers his jet rides an indulgence well worth the price. “When you step on that plane, it makes you feel successful. It makes you feel (like saying) ‘You know what, I’m going to keep working hard,”‘ he said.
Fractional jet owners get another time- and money-saving benefit – instead of being restricted to the 558 airports into which commercial jets fly, their smaller aircraft can land at 5,300 regional airports.
Since Re/Max’s Liniger finds himself dispersing employees around the world, he uses a combination of airlines and small jets to meet their needs.
“We get notified to be someplace the same day, and a lot of times the flights are totally booked or the prices are outrageously high,” he said.
Because he often gives five day-long seminars in five different cities and travels with a staff, Liniger finds it easier to fly in private jets, and he said his company will inevitably wind up buying more fractional shares. “We still have to be on the field. That is where we make our living.”
Several Colorado companies are pursuing their share of this niche market. Xjet is building a new private jet club at Centennial Airport that will match jet owners with fractional jet owners and jet users who don’t own their own planes. Aviation Technology Group will provide the club with four of its Javelin jets, and Adam Aircraft has an order for about 75 aircraft for Pogo, a Stratford, Conn.-based air taxi company. Both companies are located at Centennial Airport.
Texas-based entrepreneur Dennis Keith helped found Flexjet, a fractional ownership program, before launching Perfect Jet in June. Perfect Jet eventually will use Flexjet’s fleet to fly passengers to Aspen from Burbank, Calif.; Dallas; Houston; New York; Chicago; and San Francisco.
Staff writer Kelly Yamanouchi can be reached at 303-820-1488 or kyamanouchi@denverpost.com.
