It depends on the fractional -- I think they have all dropped the requirement to pay for ferry legs -- although owners did used to have to pay for those. Owners also pay monthly program and maintenance fees in addition to per hour flight fees. The bottom line is that a large operation like NetJets is easily able to recoup most of the increased cost of fuel from the owners. Trust me, despite how The Oracle of Omaha acts like he cares about the little guy, he's not going to leave a penny on the plate if he can manage a way to pick it up. When you look at the cost of the ownership contracts, you realize how much disposable income these people have -- unlike someone flying on SWA, a increased fuel surcharge is nothing to these types of people. I think if anything, increased fuel costs help fractionals since the airlines end up cutting schedules and service, so more people that can afford it go to fractionals. Once someone gets a taste of "private jet" flying, that person is almost never going to go back to commercial flying.

 

They might not pay directly, but trust me, the bean counters at NetJets are figuring out exactly how much all of those ferry flights cost and also finding a way to pass the cost on to the customer through either increased flight hour fees, enrollment/ownership fees, or surcharges.

For instance, a surcharge for x dollars might be the additional fuel cost of the actual flight plus the average amount of ferry time based on annual consumption.

 

The thing is, NetJets is so big that we can usually keep most ferry legs under 1 hr. We still do several 2-3 hour ferry-legs, but not as many as before. Yesterday we flew 3 pax legs, and one .5 ferry. They're getting better up there in Columbus

 

I had 4 ferry legs total on my last tour. That was uncommonly few- especially in 8 days on the road with flights every day. They are much better now at fewer ferry flights than just a couple of years ago, or even one year ago. They are commonly upgrading customers now to avoid ferry flights. As we get bigger, it becomes easier to have fewer ferries since we have airplanes all over the place.

 

Yes sir, agree.

During the holidays, it gets very busy that they (scheduers) get completely overwhelmed. The day before New years' eve 2007, we ferried from TEB to Cancun (5.3), then the passenger decides he really needs a Falcon 2000, so we ferried to Anguila (3.3) for a rev leg the following day. The demand is so great, its difficult to cover every angle, but they're getting much better.

 

All
Thanks for the great replies. I really appreciate the guidance!
Barney