The refreshing part of reading the New Yorker is knowing that so many jet and fractional owners are reading it too.
Of that group, it is important to note that private aviation readers can be divided into two groups: Those that made their own money vs. those that were born into it or just had good timing off the bus from Amherst into Goldman Sachs.
The ones that built their own usually have one thing in common - they knew how to get something far below its actual value. This would be the opposite of buying a business jet - which, until now, has been an exercise in paying far more for something than its actual value.
Popularity: 14%
The tough part about the childhood game of musical chairs is knowing that some fellow party goer gets the axe every time the music stops. Worse, it could be you if you aren’t fast enough in terms of lunging for that chair. While it would have been a stretch to say this about fractional ownership (or new positions in an Eclipse!) years ago, the fact is that we did.
» Continue Reading
Popularity: 15%
When we sent this out in January 2009, we had already laid much of the ground work for www.jetowner.com.
The trick with marketing in the private aviation space is knowing a couple of things:
- The Internet is big - Too big.Think of it like the ocean and of the 34 billion herring in the sea. There are 34,000 that might need your aviation service. Hunting them via pay per click campaigns, etc., is almost guaranteeing you to spend more on each client than they generate for you.
» Continue Reading
Popularity: 19%
Admittedly this is one of the toughest times on record for the industry, be it operator, manager, or owner. When we launched the Fractional Forum in 2003, we had already laid much of the groundwork for the Jet Owner Group. The idea was to fill the void: Give the person in back truly objective and honest information on how the industry worked.
The key to navigating uncertain times is to understand what you already know. The private air charter industry exists at the pleasure of those who are generous enough to buy an aircraft for the local, regional, or national charter operation of their choice. Being smart about investing in that aircraft typically means understanding all the dynamics that erode the fixed, variable, and true depreciation costs.”
Popularity: 19%
The Survival of Part 135 Companies in a Fractional Market
Adam was helping me understand a client file the other day, when something odd struck me:
Fractional ownership of jets has eclipsed private air charter.
The funny thing about this trend is that despite the lack of scalability or profitability within many fractional firms, the reality is that many customers seem to prefer to consume their private aircraft experience one of three ways:
Popularity: 27%
Balancing your company’s daily investment of funds and energy isn’t easy. Fortunately, while in the start up phase of our own business, we were given some very clear direction by a friend. He said, “Spend as much (or more) on your sales & marketing effort vs. ‘everything else’ and your business will fit the pattern of the most successful start ups in history.” If you can’t or won’t you are prone to flounder.
Popularity: 38%
We all love a great story. Even the mundane gets better, as long as the story “sauce” is adequate and flavorful. And fractional was too good to not discuss back in the day: “Hey…I don’t need the whole thing, I’ll just buy a share.”
Selling spoons on Ebay? Well, they are always worth a wee bit more if you can add the story about the family that faced incredible hardship when they lost the other half of this set aboard the Titanic, which sailed from their nearby Southampton home. True? Who cares.. the spoons just went up in price.
Same goes for most well marketed and overpriced fractional solutions: It is a club and by definition the most expensive way to access an aircraft.
Refined story telling came into its own around those first chats around the fire. Fireside lore was a great place to swap stories about the hunt, animals, the other gender and the general highs and lows of neolithic life. Eventually those stories would grow to include the highs and lows of one’s air charter experience and jet ownership.
Popularity: 23%