Sign of the times - Martha Stewart leaves Netjets for Talon Air

[johnsonrod]

Sign of the times? Martha Stewart leaves Netjets for Talon Air

Sign of the times in the fractional business? Buddy of mine who flies a Sovereign for Netjets flew Martha Stewart several times as a passenger and he always found her snobby (she complained about everything and she "snapped" at the crew when a weather delay was announced - probably common among the wealthy passengers who are used to getting everything on demand) and somewhat difficult to deal with. My buddy flew her several times and it was never a pleasant experience - she certainly did not resemble her "loving and nice" TV persona. No big surprise - I've read that she is not a nice person in real life. Not sure if she was a share owner or a Marquis Card owner.

So, now it looks like Martha Stewart is the "official spokesperson" for Talon Air jets out of Farmingdale. Now the Talon Air pilots have to deal with her personality. I am sure she got some compensation or free flight time in return for making this video on the Talon Air website:

http://www.talonairjets.com/

Looks like Talon Air has all of the high-level charter industry awards/certifications - and certainly a capable fleet (including some Hawker 4000s originally bound for Netjets).

So, I will pose this question: are more and more long-term fractional customers (not just Netjets customers) leaving for higher-end charter operators? Or are they selling their fractional shares and instead buying more Marquis Cards, etc.? Are the fractional carriers still selling a lot of shares given the many different alternatives out there (i.e., XOJet set-up and many quality 135 operators)? Discuss...

 

[diggertwo]

Is it me or does this jet look photoshopped? Look at the mains.

http://www.talonairjets.com/N394AK

 

[SCT]

Will Martha be picking out the flatware and napkins for the fleet?

I read where her tv show was cancled.

 

[jetwash]

Word of advice for the talonair pilots.

Never Ever put her bags on the ground!!!!! :angryfire

They go straight from the car to the aircraft. If you don't believe me try doing it once and see what happens.

You have been warned.

 

[Heavy Set]

I like the dig in the video about how Martha likes to know the names of the pilots who fly her around. Clearly a dig at Netjets and their "army" of pilots.

I actually got a good look at a Talon Air Hawker 4000 a few months ago at LAS. I had all of these pre-conceived ideas about the 4000 because of all of the delays and apparent performance issues. Surprisingly, the 4000 I looked at was very nice. Bigger cabin than I expected and the flightdeck was impressive. The Talon pilots were pretty nice and the Capt sounded like he enjoyed his job. I've read that Talon Air does not pay very well and schedules are haphazzard. Overall I was pretty impressed with the 4000 - although I am definitely partial to my CL300...

Regarding the loss of fractional share owners to high-end charter, check out the latest Business & Commercial Aviation magazine. You'll find an interesting article talking about the challenges that the fractionals are facing as owners are becoming more sophisticated and using fractional consultants to get the best deals. Jet cards are definitely becoming more and more popular. I bet the "all-in" cost of chartering a Talon Air GIV per hour is as low as chartering a Netjets Citation X using your Marquis Card. The higher-end charter operators offer a lot more flexibilty (and probably lower hourly cost) for those people who don't need the asset depreciation a fractional share provides.

 

[BentOver]

Regarding the loss of fractional share owners to high-end charter, check out the latest Business & Commercial Aviation magazine. You'll find an interesting article talking about the challenges that the fractionals are facing as owners are becoming more sophisticated and using fractional consultants to get the best deals. Jet cards are definitely becoming more and more popular. I bet the "all-in" cost of chartering a Talon Air GIV per hour is as low as chartering a Netjets Citation X using your Marquis Card. The higher-end charter operators offer a lot more flexibilty (and probably lower hourly cost) for those people who don't need the asset depreciation a fractional share provides.

Probably pretty spot on......... The size of some fractional fleets, specifically Netjets, does allow for a higher rate of reliability. I don't know much about TA. But I do know that going with a fractional is typically a safer option in terms of pressure from the company to get a flight completed if ya know what I mean.

True story..

Doing a flight from Canada we had a minor malfunction that we couldn't take all the way to S. FL.. We landed at a larger city on the US side, within 30 minutes of the malfunction we had another a/c ready to go, customs waiting, and a very happy passenger. (as happy as one could be with an unscheduled stop). He commented that that was the one great thing about being an owner with us.

I'm not sure but I doubt many charter ops could pull that off. Unless of course they flew the broken plane all the way to it's destination:erm:

>>>> I've done both charter work and NJA. I found NJA to be safer in regards to write-ups, duty time adherence etc.. I wonder how the owner of Talon would react to saying you couldn't do a flight because of a few minutes past duty time, or a nuisance msg grounding? I've heard some bad things about that guys methods.

 

[NJAowner]

Don't lump all fractional together. Some of the fractional have made attracting and retaining owners a priority. Unfortunately, NJA is getting smaller because its management no longer has attracting and retaining owners as a priority for the company. Once upon a time, NJA was the slightly more expensive option, and owners believed it was well worth the extra $$. Today, NJA is the much much more expensive option, and does not demonstrate to owners why it is priced at such a premium.

 

[Club ORD FO]

Yeah that is a very bad photoshop job. How could that be allowed to be put online? ha!

Is it me or does this jet look photoshopped? Look at the mains.

http://www.talonairjets.com/N394AK

 

[diggertwo]

Last I checked a Stationair wasn't a "turboprop". Its got a turbo, and a prop but I think that its categorization on their site is a stretch.

http://www.talonairjets.com/N727DK

 

[G4dude]

Don't lump all fractional together. Some of the fractional have made attracting and retaining owners a priority. Unfortunately, NJA is getting smaller because its management no longer has attracting and retaining owners as a priority for the company. Once upon a time, NJA was the slightly more expensive option, and owners believed it was well worth the extra $$. Today, NJA is the much much more expensive option, and does not demonstrate to owners why it is priced at such a premium.

NJA needs to stop letting the accountants run the company, and good riddance to Sokol.