Decline in Charter

[nwf800]

How bad has it gotten all over for charter companies?

 

[say again]

Bad, very bad!!!

 

[nwf800]

just want to make sure its just not our company

 

[timmay]

We were so desperate for a charter we called Blue Star Jets a couple of weeks ago and the dude laughed at us.

 

[cjdriver]

I've heard it's only a 20% decline. We're about to put our bird on charter, will we get any business?

 

[340drvr]

It's pretty grim out west for the low-end to midrange (piston twins, King Airs, Citations). Don't know about the big stuff, but most FBO's in the Rockies are way off on jetA sales.

 

[Publishers]

See the numbers on fractional thread

 

[fu69atacafyeah]

mids, super mids, and a fair share of heavys are moving still...lights are strugglin though

 

[Rerouted]

I agree...from what I'm seeing the big stuff has faired the best, mids and lights are down substantially (with lights fairing the worst).

 

[BEfly]

We have all king airs, beechjets, citations, hawkers,and a Gulfstream. All not doing well. Charter is down everwhere out west. Phone rings alot in the office but nothing ever firms up. Layoffs arre coming soon. I can smell it.......

 

[nwf800]

cjdriver where r u putting your plane on?

 

[StarHustler]

Same with us, we have two Hawker 800a's and one GIII, and none of them are doing much. We have one Hawker on Sentient dedication for two weeks out of the month and the other Hawker is on a lease but available for charter 4 days out of the week. I would say we are down about 34% overall.

 

[Shamus]

Forget the companies, how about the flight crew. I haven't flown in almost a month, which doesn't make for a good nights sleep, anyone have contact info?

 

[CapnVegetto]

I've still got a job, but our charter is WAAAAAY down. I just got back from a 6 day trip, but it's the first I've flown in almost a month. But, while I was gone, there were 2 day trips and we just had a popup today. Maybe it's starting to pick up.....

Entire month of January I flew about 2-3 days. Aircraft is Westwind.

 

[nkt369]

Our flights are always down this time of year, but we're lucky enought to provide pilot services for a couple of private aircraft. It's not much, but it keeps a few of us going through the winter.

 

[bailey3083]

Everyone is hurting bad now. Talked to a bunch of crews recently and everything from Large to Small are sitting on their asses. We have gone from 40+ hours a month to about 6-10 hours a month.
Our big problem is there so much lift out there everyone is whoring their planes out to get work. We were recently under bid by $6000 with a Citation X ( flying a LR60). Other problem is XOJet and Travel Management own their aircraft and are giving them away to keep them flying.
Hopefully rock bottom will hit in the next 60 days and start a uptick.

 

[BEfly]

Yeah, our competitors are giving airplanes away. We can't even compete. One our schedulers quoted 45 trips yesterday and didn't get one! We lost out to a company next door who did one of those trips in a bigger airplane for $4,500 less! They are just doing anything to get cash flow. We've lowered our prices significantly but we certainly are not going to fly at a loss. Better off to let the airplanes sit.

 

[BEfly]

BTW...... During superbowl, operators were calling our AZ based company to see if we had an business for them. They were willing to position a G5 to PHX for free AND the rate was near half what we were charging for our Gulfstream! I ran into one the crew on this airplane and I remember him saying "at least we are flying". Apparently he hasn't done the math. If he did, he would see how they hemorrhage money when that airplane moves.

 

[joelo88]

you'd think that you wouldn't need a business degree to figure out how asinine it is to fly your aircraft at a loss. i mean, if you're in business to make money of course...

our company won't do it thank god. after 10 years in it the stupidity in this industry is still shocking.

 

[NorskAir]

The funny thing is that Wyvern Standard minimums are 75 hours in type in the past 90 days, and the only ones that currently meet that is the bottom feeding operators that fly trips at a loss just to pay the bills.