Gone are the days when you need to be a personal assistant to an A-list celeb to know how to book airfare on private jets. Flying on executive aircraft isn’t just for the upper crust anymore. In fact, with advances in digital technology and the emergence of the shared economy, there are times and places when it actually makes more sense to take to the skies in a swank 10-person Cessna than a sterile Boeing 777.

Of course, wanting to book private jets is one thing; having the know-how and dialed-in connections to make it happen is another. Don’t worry, chartering a plane or purchasing a single seat is easier today than ever before.

Private Jets vs. Commercial Aircraft

Commercial airlines such as Delta and United have faced many new challenges over the past decade, from rising fuel costs to increased competition thanks to no-frills, discount airlines. The upshot includes new and increased baggage fees, mergers and regional carriers that make it difficult to tell who’s who, and the shrinking of everything from seat size to in-flight snacks. That said, these airlines offer reliable, cost-effective air transportation for the masses, with plenty of options for upgrades, connecting cities and more.

At the same time, private jets have adapted a bit more dramatically to the changing skies. They’re embracing the start-up culture and technology, giving rise to new players and new business models that have one thing in common: uber-customer friendliness.

These new advantages of flying private jets should be tallied up with the industry’s existing catalog:

• Convenience: With more than 5,000 airports for the picking, as well as flexible take-off times and fewer security hassles, private jets offer tremendous time savings. Imagine walking up to your plane 15 minutes before scheduled a take-off – or being able to delay take-off because one of your co-workers forgot to set her alarm clock. Plus, smaller planes can more nimbly maneuver around inclement weather systems, giving you less of a chance of facing delays.
• Privacy: Maybe you’re organizing a business meeting. Or a reunion of family and friends. Either way, you don’t need to worry about the snoop in the middle seat, screaming kids or chatty flight attendants distracting from the business at hand – even if that business is catching up with family.¹
• Luxury: OK, ok, chartering executive jets isn’t all about practicality. There is an opportunity to lavish the clients, or even yourself. While flight attendants don’t come standard on private jets, especially the smaller ones, you can request them, as well as catering ranging from a fully stocked bar to take-out fish tacos from your favorite roadside stand. Wi-Fi and coffee should be complimentary.²

How to Book: The Business of Private Jets

Up until recently, you only had a few options for getting a seat on an executive jet. You could buy a plane one for eight figures – including another half-million dollars for annual maintenance – or you could rent one.

That’s “one” as in an entire plane, not a seat. Renting included contacting a charter company for a quote before a complicated back-and-forth of negotiations. Rental companies include Celebrity Jet, Apollo Jets, and Clay Lacy Aviation. By taking this traditional approach, you might pay $50,000 for a 10-passenger Cessna Citation X from NYC to LA.²

You could also go the broker route, using a middleman entity to negotiate the best rate by leveraging its connections and market knowledge. And there is another option: fractional or shared executive jet ownership. Think of it as a mile-high timeshare. One example of this model is the Warren Buffett-owned NetJets.

OK, this may seem like a solid number of options, but in the past few years, these antiquated business models have been updated and upgraded by a number of savvy start-ups that put private jet flight within reach of a lot more travelers.

One emerging business model is similar to Netflix: the monthly subscription model for those who need a seat, not a whole plane. Beacon, for example, charges $2,000 a month for all-you-can-fly memberships after a $1,000 initiation fee. The cost savings math for this model usually starts to work in your favor if you fly four or more times a month, or about 20 hours’ worth of flight time.³

Then there is JetSuite.com, which still may force you to rent an entire plane, but does so at rates beginning at $536, for example, for all six seats on an aircraft heading from Oxford, Conn. to Philadelphia. As you might imagine, you need to patiently hunt for rates this low – and be fortunate that they fit your itinerary.⁴ 

JetMe borrows a page from reverse-auction travel sites such as Hotwire.com; enter your destination, submit a bid, and even view your odds of having that bid accepted by an operator in the company’s network while you wait.³

Other private jet start-ups to watch include regional private carrier Rise and Victor, the latter of which offers an intuitive mobile app that makes on-demand booking on par or even easier than making reservations through commercial airlines.

Many of these start-ups are taking advantage of the “empty legs” phenomenon, where private jets zig and zag around the globe with 30 to 40 percent of their seats sans passengers. This is compounded by the sheer number of available seats on private jets to begin with, in the United States in particular. With more than 11,000 registered jets, this domestic private fleet comprises nearly 50 percent of the entire global market for private aircraft.⁵

But make no mistake, the success of shared economy start-ups featuring superior, technology-enabled user interfaces, such as Airbnb and Zipcar, are also thrusting these new business models forward.

This new trajectory of private jets makes landing a seat on an executive jet more of a reality than ever for the oft-commuting exec or even the vacationing family who wants to create an extra-special experience. As for safety concerns, corporate or executive jets are actually much closer to commercial airlines than personal planes on the accident spectrum. Private executive or corporate jets have a rate of 4.7 accidents and 0.8 fatal accidents per 1 million flight hours.⁶

So if money, access, and safety aren’t keeping you from strolling up to a private jet for your next trip, what is preventing you from living the high life in a much more comfortable seat?

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