As airlines continue to cut costs by cutting amenities, more and more people are turning to private jets.
1. Understand Your Needs
2. Contact a Jet Broker
Once you understand your needs, your best bet would be to contact a professional jet broker. Yes, you will end up paying their fees, but in most cases it’s cheaper and far easier than doing it yourself.
Though you could easily contact an operator for a quote, you’ll end up with a much more expensive quote simply because they don’t know who you are.
Brokers, on the other hand, have longstanding relationships with most operators and represent both past and future business. Due to this, they not only get a cheaper quote, they can often negotiate it down even further as they can place bulk orders.
Another perk of hiring a private jet broker is that they have often already vetted the safety standards of the operator and the individual pilots and crew – something you would probably want to know beforehand.
In this modern world, the easiest way to find a jet broker is to type something like “private jet charter” or “private jet charter broker” – both of which will yield millions of results in a few seconds.
Alternatively, you could gain recommendations from other people who’ve chartered their own private jets, search for them in a directory of some kind or contact a broker who cold call/emailed you a whole back.
From there, it is simply a matter of choosing the best broker for you – every one of them are different and have their own specialisms – and explain your needs to them.
Many of the people who are quite new to the world of business aviation often hire a jet advisor to help them pick out the best broker and introduce their client to that broker. From our experience, the best jet advisors are independent solo operations.
They often have working relationships with multiple brokers/brokerages and work on volume (just as brokers do), referring HNWIs such as yourself to the best broker/brokerage for your needs for a commission or finders fee paid by the broker.
Though they make the process of picking a broker much less of a headache, you don’t necessarily need one as most brokers will work with new clients without being introduced by a jet advisor.
3. Book & Pay For Your Flight
As you are explaining your needs them, your broker will work out what class of private jet you’ll need:
- Very Light Jet: 6-7 passengers, 2,174 km (1,351 mi; 1,174 nmi) range
- Light Jet: 6-8 passengers, 3,617 km (2,247 mi; 1,953Â nmi) range
- Mid-Size Jet: 9 passengers, 4,704 km (2,923 mi; 2,540Â nmi) range
- Super Mid-Size Jet: 10-11 passengers, 6,334 km (3,936 mi; 3,420Â nmi) range
- Large Jet: 13-14 passengers, 7,410 km (4,604 mi; 4,001Â nmi) range
- Long-Range Jet: 12-19 passengers, 12,000 km (7,478 mi; 6,498Â nmi) range
- VIP Airliner: Commercial airliners with factory private jet interiors such as the Airbus ACJ, Boeing BBJ and Embraer Lineage 1000E programs or former commercial airliners refitted with a private jet interior
Their next course of action would be to ask you
A truly great broker will even give you a ballpark estimate for how much your flight will cost, before going away and getting concrete quotes from operators for a variety of aircraft, which they will present to you.
Though they will often “recommend” a particular aircraft for the trip – usually based on their own personal expertise as to what you’re likely to find best – the decision of which aircraft to fly on is ultimately up to you.
Once you’ve picked your aircraft, your jet broker will confirm the order with the operator and send you the invoice, which you would ideally settle within a few days max. Remember: it’s not booked until you pay for it.
4. Get All The Details
5. Arrive at The Airport
6. Enjoy Your Flight!
7. Arrive at Your Destination
8. Don’t Forget Next Time!
Though you may only have plans to charter a private jet on one occasion, research shows that you’ll do it again.