Here’s how rich you have to be to fly comfortably

Speaking of air travel, there is an alternative to putting up with the pat downs, long lines, constant waits, cancellations and the passenger mistreatment you’ve been reading about recently. But it will probably cost thousands of dollars per hour.

We’re talking about fractional ownership in private jets. James Butler is an attorney with a one-man shop in Bethesda, Md., called Shaircraft Solutions. Butler, 58, has created an enviable, 20-year niche negotiating contracts on behalf of the one-percenters who can afford to own a piece of a private aircraft.

Butler’s dozens of clients include big-time financiers and sports-team owners, business executives and just plain wealthy individuals who want to smooth out some of the rough edges of travel. One couple hired him for a fractional deal just so their dog could fly with them in the cabin.

Private air-travel contracts run can from $1.8 million (U.S.) to tens of millions. “These are big-dollar deals,” Butler said. “Say you are buying 50 hours on a mid-size jet. Fifty hours a year for five years, you can end up spending more than $1 million just to purchase the share. So you own an asset.

“Then, over five years, you pay a monthly fee of over $10,000 a month. Then you pay an hourly operating charge when you are in the plane. That can be from $5,000 to $25,000 an hour.”

Butler helps with the contract in a few ways. He negotiates the deal so the jet providers do not “round up” a 40-minute flight from D.C. to New York into an hour.

Butler likes his niche. He invents his work schedule, lives a short drive from the office and has helped raise their two children — all while being his own boss. He earns a comfortable, six-figure income, but is it enough to fly private aircraft?

His answer: “Not unless somebody takes me on their jet.”