Corporate Aviation

There are basically two type of aviation business for personal travel the first being corporate and the second being commercial. Each has it own advantages and disadvantages for the traveler and for the pilot employed by the company. Most people are familiar with the first one we will discuss; the commercial airline. Commercial airlines are an airline that has a specific route and schedule they fly. Anyone can buy a ticket and get to their destination. This causes a problem for some businesses because they rarely fly into the smaller regional airports. These smaller airports are typically in the vicinity of where the companies send their employees. Also a passenger may have to use a full day just to get to a city that may only be a 4 hour flight away due to the travel time to the airport, the waiting time for their flight, and maybe a layover added. This loss of time really affects the company since having a key employee out all day effects their productivity. Lastly most companies need to send their employees to a destination without very much lead time. This increases the cost of ticket and if business trips are canceled the company loses out on the cost of the ticket. In most cases both problems effect the bottom line of the company.

            Corporate aviation on the other hand is an as needed service. Your company owns the plane and has the pilots either on their payroll or they have hired a management company who supplies the pilots. This means the plane is ready to go when you are ready. There isn’t a worry about purchasing tickets last minute or trying to schedule a trip so that your employee is sitting around in an airport for the majority of the day without getting work done. This also means if you need to cancel flights then you don’t lose out on that money that was spent on a commercial airline ticket. The major advantage of the corporate flight department is that you can get your employees to the correct town 90% of the time. “Business aviation serves ten times the number of communities (more than 5,000 airports) served by commercial airlines (about 500 airports). This means business aviation can allow companies to locate plants or facilities in small towns or rural communities with little or no commercial airline service. With nearly 100 communities having lost airline service” (No Plane No gain, 2015). Therefore, they won’t have to fly into a major hub, then have to rent a car and drive for hours to their intended destination. “Business aviation allows for efficient, flexible, safe, secure and cost-effective access to destinations across the country and around the world. Because employees can meet, plan and work with each other aboard business aircraft, productivity enroute is greatly enhanced” (NBAA,2015). This means less travel time and more productivity for your employee. These differences are the basic argument for why a company can realize an increase in profitability by utilizing a corporate aviation department.

            As a pilot there are the same basics opportunities in both realms of aviation. Both corporate aviation and commercial aviation utilize pilots and copilots. Although there are a lot more opportunities out there in the commercial aviation field than there are in the in the corporate field. There is a drawback,  91 corporate aviation department can set their own minimums for their pilots with the basic requirement being either a single engine commercial license or a multi-engine commercial license. Their pilots are not required by the FAA to carry an ATP. This is a positive attribute since most pilots can acquire a job in the right seat of a corporate plane sooner than a regional airline. With that being said competition is high for the fewer slots that are available. There is also a higher starting salary within thecorporate aviation field than there is with regional airlines. This also is a benefit to the pilots although the trade of is a lower pay scale at the end of your career if you choose to stay in corporate aviation. Lastly the chances that you are home at night and not away from your family for long periods of time are also better for the corporate pilot.

Corporate Eagle is a great example of corporate aviation company. Although they are not the traditional aviation department they are what are gradually replacing company owned aviation departments. Corporate eagle is an aviation management company. Their role is to provide management, maintenance and pilot services for corporations that own their own aircraft. In this role they are saving those companies money by not having to have an aviation department on their payroll full time. The pilots at Corporate Eagle fly a number of different company’s jets. Their fleet consists of Company fleet consists of “13 aircraft (3 x King Air B200, 3 x Hawker 700, 4 x 800XP, and 3 x Falcon 2000) with operations based at KPTK”. (Warner, 2014) Although they primarily act as a management company corporate eagle does hold a part 135 operators certificate.  This means that they can run charter services. This also means companies can opt to have corporate eagle hire out their jets to offset the maintenance and storage costs, which further saves the owners money. The hiring requirements for pilots are a commercial multi certificate with a IFR rating, a CFI, CFII and MEI with 1500 hours is preferred. This is a starting point they have hired pilots with less hours.

 

Business Aircraft Uses. (2015, January 1). Retrieved February 28, 2015, from http://www.nbaa.org/business-aviation/uses/

Business Leaders on Business Aviation | No Plane No Gain. (2015, January 1). Retrieved February 28, 2015, from http://www.noplanenogain.org/Advocacy_Tools.htm?m=47&s=407#.VPIcMZV0yP8

Warner, S. (2014, September 15). Job Post: Corporate Eagle - First Officer/Second-In-Command. Retrieved February 28, 2015, from http://aviation.wmich.edu/jobs-scholarships-and-internship-postings/bid/355164/Job-Post-Corporate-Eagle-First-Officer-Second-In-Command