Time magazines view of Corporate aviation

[jetwash]

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1863640,00.html?iid=tsmodule

 

[SpaceBall 1]

The whole issue of "main stream" media harping on corporate jets is absurd. The media ignors the increased efficiency gained with corporate aircraft. If the boss or sales people cannot get to a metting on time to close the "big deal", someone else will. Not to mention the increased safety, both personally and to the company that is gained by using corporate jets vs other forms of transportation. Airline delays, corporate espionage and pissed off consumers are a true threat.

 

[FurloughedAgain]

Time isn't exactly the enquirer. Hopefully that will get some traction.

 

[BoilerUP]

The Time story is fairly objective...

 

[Capt1124]

That was a fairly good defense of corporate aviation. The value proposition is well argued by NBAA and others- corporate aircraft make better use of expensive executive time.

But here's the other thing- it's a benefit, a form of payment, to the user. And it's tax free, as the company deducts the whole cost of it, and the user does not pay taxes on it. At some level of compensation you're going to pass on highly taxed salary for a tax free benefit that improves your quality of life a lot.

Some economist could do a study on it, but Ill bet the use of corporate aircraft is higher in high tax states, adjusting for all other factors, than low tax states.

 

[gret]

Personal use of an a/c is taxable to the indivdual and the company loses its a/c deductions. If the indivudal pays for the personal use, the company retains a portion of the deductions.

 

[CapnVegetto]

Hmmmmm, I bet Time Magazine has NO access to corporate aircraft or charter aircraft at ALL. Yeah right.......

Good points there though.

 

[SansPlane]

Personal use of an a/c is taxable to the indivdual and the company loses its a/c deductions. If the indivudal pays for the personal use, the company retains a portion of the deductions.

And while taxable to the individual, these little matters of taxes are usually covered in their employment agreements in the form of gross ups. Life can be pretty sweet at the top, eh?

 

[gret]

The gross ups are there in most cases. The personal use and the gross up often exceeds the CEO's base salary.

BTW, the personal use amount that is reported just includes variable cost, not pilot salaries, insurance, purchase price of the a/c, etc.

 

[chingaso]

The banks on Wall Street, who don't produce anything really, crapped in their own bed and Congress bailed them out, and they got to keep their GVs.

Auto makers, who employee a lot of people, and are hurting simply because the bailed-out banks won't loan people money anymore, are getting bitch-slapped because of the economy.

We gave the oil industry 9 billion bucks 2-years ago to build more refineries. 2 years later they cry poor again and get even more tax breaks and incentives to do the exact same thing we already gave them 9 bil for.

The only reason Detroit builds huge SUVs and ineffiecient cars and trucks is because a lot of people buy these types of vehicles. The cost of gas goes up and the banks stop lending money, and the public stops buying Escalades; perfect storm.

Bail out the oil companies that don't need it, bail out the banks that sh** their own beds and screwed the US populace, but the automakers get to twist in the wind. I guess they just don't have the same lobby in DC that Big Oil and the banking industry do.

Hey lets borrow some more money from China!

 

[G4G5]

Hmmmmm, I bet Time Magazine has NO access to corporate aircraft or charter aircraft at ALL. Yeah right.......

Good points there though.

They did have plenty of access, up until the mid-late 90's. Once Time-Warner purchased CNN, they became the golden child and received the corporate jet access. Now, I doubt that either get access because the corporate jets are all but gone. At last check TW was down to just one corporate jet (not counting the studio)

 

[gret]

Personal use by executives on the Time Warner a/c was $800K (variable costs only) per their 2007 SEC filings (proxy).

Ford was over $700K, Citi $700K, GE $600K..and then this-

The Denver Post wrote:Qwest amended the employment contract of new chief executive officer Ed Mueller to allow his wife and youngest daughter to use the company's corporate jet without him present, according to a regulatory filing Friday.
The change will accomodate his daughter's commute from California, where she is finishing her senior year in high school, to Mueller's new home in the Denver area. Mueller is e...

 

[xshuttlefa]

The whole problem with how this was presented to the public was that the Senator (in an annoying and condescending tone) who asked the question made it seem like the CEOs had their own jets for their own use.

To me, the Senator was implying that the these CEO's paid for their own personal jets with their big salaries (which are out of line, but that's a different argument for a different time). It was not made clear, at least initially, in any media I can remember, that these aircraft belonged to the company or a leasing agent.

Most people don't understand how an airplane flies, let alone how a multi-million dollar jet or a fleet of them,even with their associated cost, can BENEFIT a company, especially one the size of an automaker.

It's a good thing Bob Lutz is no longer chairman of Chrysler. I believe he has an L-39 for personal use. The media would have loved that.

 

[siucavflight]

Hmmmmm, I bet Time Magazine has NO access to corporate aircraft or charter aircraft at ALL. Yeah right.......

Good points there though.

Actually I do not think that they have very much access at all. From what I remember they are down to one aircraft, and that one was for sale.

 

[lawfly]

According to the FAA website (aircraft registration pages), "Warner Brothers" and "Warner Communications" have about 15 jets between them. Don't know how "Time", the magazine, fits into that picture, but just thought I'd mention that, as they have the same parent company, no? (The article makes some good points. Thanks for the link.)

 

[Murphy]

Congress..bunch of hypocrites. How many congressional junkets do they take a year out of the 89th Airlift Wing? So the next time they want to go to Paris, London, or Moscow to conduct "America's business" they can take an airliner.