Today was Fair Weather Flying‘s first helicopter charter operation. A customer from California needed to attend an event in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. He took a red-eye flight from California, showered at Signature Flight Support at Logan Airport ($228 in airport, security, and FBO fees), and then got into our helicopter for the 30-minute ride to the Falmouth Airpark. The weather was perfect. The controllers were helpful, though somewhat anxious due to the fact that the Falmouth airport is 2 nautical miles from the “no-fly” zone established around Barack Obama’s Martha’s Vineyard vacation (approximately 3000 square miles of airspace up to 18,000′ have been mostly shut down to accommodate Mr. Obama; the cost to area flight schools is thousands of dollars every day and the impact on sightseeing operators on the Cape and Islands has been devastating; aviation businesses here were hoping the President would choose to vacation in the stricken Gulf of Mexico, but instead he has returned to his 29-acre rental beach house (details)).
Kathleen and I served our customer a bottle of Poland Springs water, gave him a hardcopy of Travels with Samantha for in-flight reading, and watched as he departed smiling into a waiting taxi. Then we ferried the helicopter back to Hanscom Field, landing around 10:00 am.
Phil,
Why did he charter a helicopter to transit from one airport to another versus a cheaper fixed wing charter?
Jon: Why a helicopter? First of all, fixed wing charter is generally more expensive than our $550/hour rate. Most fixed wing charter is jet-powered and costs $2000 per hour or more. Also, if you followed the link to that Falmouth Airpark you would have discovered that the runway is 2298′ long. That is not a legal amount of runway for the typical charter airplane.
The site doesn’t say it explicitly, but I assume I’m also covering your return on a one-way flight unless I find a paying passenger? This is one area where high-volume outfits have a big advantage.
KMVY to HPN is another popular route you might want to quote.
John: Traditional charter requires the customer to pay for ferrying the aircraft to/from home base. Fractional ownership and time cards the charges are only for “occupied hours”, but the hourly charges are higher. Definitely the NetJets of the world have an advantage in that they can keep their ferry time to a minimum. I’m not sure why someone would want to charter us MVY to HPN since the runways are so long on both ends (suitable for airplanes, which are faster) and the trip is relatively long. I guess one advantage that we have is that we don’t wait in line for the runway. We were able to depart Logan Airport, for example, immediately. An airplane would have had to taxi for nearly two miles and then wait, sometimes as long as 30 minutes.
Why? Leaving from the front lawn saves 30 minutes, HPN instead of LGA saves an hour, and the airline price makes charters more practical for moving several people. Folks with any flexibility don’t pay a ferry fee on that route in the summer, so you’d need a client base or relationships with the other operators to appeal on price.