Fractional Jets & Opportunities for Pilots

The fractional jet business is an excellent source of jobs for pilots.  What are fractional jets?  It's a common term for companies with customers (called "owners") who buy a share of a plane, rather than an entire plane. The price is, of course, pro-rated from the price of a full airplane. Owners then have guaranteed access (typically 50-400 hours annually or a certain number of days, depending on the share bought) to that plane with only a few hours advance notice to fly anywhere. The size of the share bought may also define the additional benefits the owner enjoys. Owners also typically have access to the full fleet of planes -- larger and smaller. In addition to purchase costs, owners pay a monthly maintenance fee for hangaring, pilot salaries and actual flight hours used. Fuel is usually priced extra.  

The development of fractional ownership companies broadened the reach of private aviation. Previously, the only way to enjoy a private jet aircraft was to buy one, which was/is obviously extremely costly. In 1986 the first company in this business, NetJets, started.  It offeris a timeshare model with guaranteed availability, which allowed a viable way to ownership of jets for thousands of people -- and created many new jobs for pilots. NetJets just announced to will buy up to 125 new Embraer Phenom 300s, which are valued at a total of more than USD$1 billion. NetJets now has over USD$2.9 billion of aircraft on order.  It has become a big company in an important segment of the aviation business.

Other fractional business jet operators include Flexjet, CitationShares and Flight Options. Non-jet fractional companies are Avantair (flying Piaggio P180 Avanti aircraft), PlaneSense (flying Pilatus PC-12) AirSprint and Autumn Air and others.

Since aircraft need to be available at just a few hours notice fractional jet companies need many pilots. This business of fractional ownership is also growing (or NetJet wouldn't be buying a $1 billion worth of new aircraft, right?), which means more pilots will be needed.  If this exciting career appeals to you, flying to different places with important people and celebrities as your passsengers -- but you need to learn to fly so you can start your professional pilot career -- contact Phoenix East Aviation at www.pea.com.  You can soon be on the path to a great job as a pilot with a fractional jet company.