senecacaptain

Looks like some positive news for the Frax operators.

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...nel=lcp-389487

shrsailplanes

Would be great if this were true, but I don’t think people just decide on a whim they are going to invest in a fractional arrangement. It’s a significant investment with pretty high year over year costs that only people of substantial wealth can afford.

rickair7777

I think the guy has a point. But I suspect gains on that front will be more than offset by broader economic losses. Time will tell.

TriStarPilot

I personally think there will be a small uptick in business. To what end, I am not sure. My wife’s company used to travel a lot on airlines but has since started using charter flights to limit exposure. She said her boss mentioned the other day the company wasn’t keen at first but now are embracing it and will most likely continue now. For what it’s worth.

senecacaptain

friend of mine is in management at a large charter company. local company has approached them to "fly company execs" to "site visits" versus airline and then rent a car, which is what they used to do. this would often require a hotel room due to total time and length of trip associated to the drive to the site from big city airport/airline service.

apparently this "option" was always on their brains but it was deemed too costly.

now, health of management team is a consideration (for this particular company), avoidance of hotels, dealing with public, etc is reduced.

so some sort of frax ownership or charter arrangment is being looked at. ostensibly they can fly via ACME charter to the local airport, get out, get picked up by company employee, visit the site, return at end of day and fly home

more expensive technically but other variables are in play now and company has recently said we are not putting a price on health

AirBear

At NetJets I once flew a team of execs from a major retailer. We did 6 legs around the Carolinas, waited while they did their store visits, then on to the next stop. A year later I did another team from that chain only this time it was longer legs to different parts of the country. I remember a stopover at Enid, OK. No rental car for them to use so the FBO manager let them borrow his personal vehicle There's no way to have that much productivity when flying the airlines.

senecacaptain

wow. I agree. it was always about cost. now it is about something else.

GeeWizDriver

NJ is currently averaging just under 50% of pre-Covid flight demand. And that is with the two business epicenters (NY and CA) still in nearly full lockdown mode (good, bad, indifferent). Once those Governors ease restrictions and things start moving toward “normal” I would expect to see closer to 80% of 2019 demand by the early fall.

The fractional segment may lose some customers because of broader economic challenges but it may also gain clients because even First Class isn’t so appealing when it might mean sitting next to a bunch of “Covid Cathys” in the terminal and on the airplane. Those who COULD afford charter or fractional in the past might decide now they HAVE to afford it.

MinRest

Then they would already be flying private...

The private sector is not going to gain an uptick like after 2001. There is no public perception to fear airline travel. When the real fear of getting on a commercial airliner and having it be hijacked was a reality, people broke out their checkbooks and ponied up. That is not going to be the case this time.

Once states and businesses open up again, travel demand will increase across the board. I know more 135 pilots looking for work right now because of COVID than I do 121 pilots (we all know the hit to 121 is coming though).

Doesn't matter if you fly private or commercial to Disneyworld right now because it is closed...

Das Auto

Well another Thing to think about is airline availability. There used to be 8 flights a day between my local airport and DFW on American. Now there are just 2. There comes a point where flying privately just makes more sense. Especially if it's a group of 5 or 6 people who would normally fly first class.