Still Happy At Avantair

[AftCG182]

I'll check with Elizabeth Place when she gets in tomorrow. She's our pilot recruiter. I thought we were hiring into all of our gateways(bases), but I can check that.

 

[greyskyracer]

is there a training contract?

 

[AftCG182]

There is, but that may have changed, too. I'll check on that as well.

 

[eagle06]

Glad to hear you are still enjoying the company. Good luck and Merry Christmas!

 

[Boris Badenov]

Glad you're enjoying yourself. Cool airplane.

In other news, and a propos to nothing, if I see one more aviation-themed video set to the rousing strains of "Learn to Fly", I'm going to run over Dave Grohl's dog.

 

[Heavy Set]

I just talked to a happy Avantair crew at LAS a couple days ago. I got a nice tour of the Avanti and I was very impressed - very comfortable in the back. That Avanti is a real sports car.

I think Avantair is filling a big void in the market (people who don't want to buy more expensive jet shares but still want luxury travel and convenience of flying to smaller airports). That's a big market of people when you think about it - not everyone can afford Gulfstreams. Over relatively short distances the Avanti compares favorably with more expensive jets anyway in terms of flight times - NYC area to Boston or LA to Las Vegas or San Francisco will not see much benefit in a jet. Obviously jets make more sense over medium to longer flights. From what I have heard Avantair has been selling a lot of shares (especially with the higher fuel costs).

 

[Guitar Guy]

...if I see one more aviation-themed video set to the rousing strains of "Learn to Fly", I'm going to run over Dave Grohl's dog.

That's really mean-spirited during this holiday season.


Run over Dave instead: he's the one who wrote that song.

 

[AftCG182]

One last post before I go to bed

One last post and I'm out...

To address a couple of points:

-The cabin is so roomy due to the aerodynamic shape of the fuselage. We actually get 20% of our lift from the fuselage itself. At 5'9" I can just about stand upright in the cabin.

-Avantair is filling a niche in the market. We're optimized for ultra-short to medium range trips. However, we have plenty of owners that use us for long-haul trips. Just my opinion, but I credit it to the airplane's efficiency and low impact on the environment, combined with the high level of crew interaction. It's almost like flying family. The owners don't mind a fuel stop at all. Note: If you don't like connecting with your pax, maybe Avantair isn't the best place for you to work. No bulletproof door here!

-Another thing is giving tours of the airplane. The Avanti is such an attention getter, you really need to like giving tours. You give 'em all the time. It makes remembering the limitations and specs easy when you have to recite them day after day! Also, don't take the harsh comments from the King Air 200 owners & pilots personally. We're their worst nightmare

The jets and larger aircraft operated by the bigger fractionals are pretty much serving a different market than we are. There's never any hard feelings when you sit near a NetJets guy at the breakfast buffet. Again, it's only my opinion, but the big guys like NetJets and Flexjet serve a different customer base than we do.

In closing, I'd like to say that I find it refreshing to actually look forward to going to work, then to be taken care of by the people who sign my paycheck. Flying a kickass airplane and having cool coworkers is just icing on the cake.

As I always say, "keep the blue side up", and have a great night.

Dave

 

[Heavy Set]

What's the "average" upgrade time again - 1-3 years? Also, how many Avanti IIs will be added in 2008?

Thanks

 

[johnsonrod]

I thought I heard upgrades were running at 12-18 months. Looks like a bunch of Avantis (40 now with 100 total by 2012) and some light jets (Phenom 100s) are expected over the next 3-5 years:

http://airlinepilotcentral.com/airlines/fractional/avantair.html