The Sheer Joy of Aircraft Ownership
Fractional ownership is catching on and Flightshares allows one to not only fly one’s own aircraft, but at lower costs
In a country like India, where getting in and out of cities takes time, a private aircraft provides immense convenience. Many towns have infrequent airline service if at all, with inconvenient timings. That means overnight stays, long drives or train journeys and expensive assets like factories lie unsupervised or neglected.
Of the 200 airports across India, only some 60 have airline service. A light aircraft can access most airports within a two-hour flight from major cities on a convenient schedule. You could visit a factory, meet government authorities in another city and be back home, fresh and relaxed, in time for dinner.
Thus far, the only options to fly private were either by owning your own aircraft or by chartering one from the market.
Full ownership of an aircraft, with the associated costs and headaches, makes sense only for the wealthiest corporate houses, whose annual flying justifies the expense. Charter, on the other hand, is unpredictable you are never sure you will get the aircraft you need, you may have to pay for it to fly from a different city to pick you up and you won’t be able to change your programme if your plans change.
In developed countries like the US and Europe, there’s another alternative - professionally managed fractional aircraft ownership programmes. For customers regularly using private aircraft, these bring down costs, enhance service consistency, without the headaches of aircraft ownership. They give the joy of aircraft ownership with business benefits from strategic mobility.
Flightshares, a new-age aviation management company, has introduced an Indiaoptimised programme to bring fractional aircraft ownership to our country, fully compliant to DGCA rules.
How does it work? You buy a share of an aircraft most suited to your needs from the programme - a jet, a turboprop, or a helicopter. Your share entitles you to fly a certain number of hours - for example, a 1/10th share gives you 50 hours annually. Owners share the fixed costs such as crew, maintenance, parking, insurance, etc. and pay an hourly rate for every flight. Schedule your flights by calling Flightshares, who takes care of everything.
Your share of the aircraft is an asset that can be sold anytime in the future, arranged by the fractional programme manager. You can also offer surplus hours for charter, thereby offsetting fixed costs. If you need more hours, Flightshares arranges that too.
You also get immense flexibility once the programme fleet increases. For example, if you’re a Mumbai customer but need to fly from Calcutta to Agartala, you could use a programme aircraft based in Calcutta. Or if you have a share of a jet, but need a helicopter to fly to your vacation home in Ranikhet, you can exchange jet hours for a helicopter.
Apart from flying in your own aircraft, on your schedule, and lowering costs, you also benefit from the latest government incentives offered through IFSCA-GIFT City.
Promoted by seasoned aviation and business professionals, Flightshares has signed up its first set of customers and is now accepting further bookings.