Is there much competition for business between Fractional carriers? I'm in my first year with a major airline, and just curious how stable a job at CS or Flexjet might be (worth leaving my current job if I get an offer). I know nothing is certain, just looking for some thoughts and ideas.
Thanks

 

NJ has 75% of the fractional market. All the others make up the remaining 25%. Good news is all of them seem to be doing well. Right now, NJ is the place to be due to our recent TA passage. Good Luck with your choice.

 

Congrats on getting on with a major. I think you are in a good position. You have and are getting 121 and "big" airplane time. If I had to guess, moving from 121 to 91K is easier than 91k to 121 major. NJA is a great place to work and they treat us very well. I don't think that I would be competitive getting on at a major with no 121 time. I think you will have an advantage if you choose to move around. I think its all a roll of the dice.

 

First of all, if you're looking for STABILITY, this is not a good industry for that. However, I do think the fractionals offer us a healthy portion of that. If you think about it:

1-there will ALWAYS be wealthy people.
2-Lately it seems airline service is at Greyhound's level, and their on-time performance, well lets not get into that. Most companies don't want their executives missing company meetings because their flights got cancelled. The fracs. seem to be getting more and more company/firm accounts.

As far as competition between the fracs. like F16Driver said, NJ has the biggest piece of the pie, sort of the Southwest of LCCs, but there are enough accounts to keep all three (NJ, CS, FX) fat and happy. Flight Options just ordered 100 Embraer Light-jets. I think they're throwing in the towel on this market, probably will go after Plane Sense and Avant Air with those little things.

My opinion, CS and FX are defitnely retirement jobs. You're not with Continental, are you?? I read they lost 130 First Officers last year, wassap with that??

 

I agree. Flex has one advantage in that it is owned by the manufacturer; we will always have an exclusive on the Challengers and Lears. Additionally, the company has many assets outside aviation which should help create a little bit more stability. (Of course, you can't get much more stable than Berkshire-Hathaway!)

There is certainly competition between the companies for owners. The 25 hour cards have probably increased this somewhat. However, I do not sense any animosity among the pilots. As long as they stay behind us at TEB!!!!(j/k)

 

Hahaha, good one Navajo31.

 

I guess X/O Jet isn't exactly a fractional, but they too will have lots of Challengers (I really like the 300, but it isn't ever happening at NJA). I'm curious about how well their model will work as they grow, but they are adding lots of new airplanes in the near future and are going to be capturing customers that would probably otherwise go to one of the true fractionals. There are a lot of rich people who want to fly on business jets and my guess is that there is room for all to grow without killing off the others.

 

I agree with you jtf, there is still a lot of room to grow for every fractional. XOJET has ordered 60 Challenger 300's that they start taking delivery of next year. I guess Flex isn't the only one that will have them.

 

Heard some grumbling about this at Flex. Apparently Bombardier didn't consider them a fractional operator. I'm not aware of any limit on the use of the planes, but thought seems to be XO is big on the west coast, where Flex is not as strong.