=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2002/03= /03/TR222832.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunday, March 3, 2002 (SF Chronicle) Chartering private flights starting to make more sense Michael Dougan Sick of letting strangers run prods over your body and fondle your shoes? Dismayed because a two-hour lunch with your client in Los Angeles requires eight hours of airport time? Frightened by the prospect of flying with strangers who might have nefarious intent? Mourn for the old days when you could walk right onto a plane without passing through a security gate? You can still do it, Bippy. It might put a dent in your bank account, but it's possible to fly on your own schedule, from any little airport you choose, and to arrive at your destination more quickly than you would by taking a commercial airliner - all without enduring the dreaded airport security shuffle. In some cases, surprisingly, the cost might be competitive with airline rates. And nobody will ask to see the contents of your luggage. The trick is to rent your own aircraft - whether a single-engine piston plane like the Cessna 172 or a full-blown Citation jet - and pay a professional pilot to handle the controls. It's called air charter. In the wake of Sept. 11, it's booming. "Business has definitely picked up since 9/11," said Cheli Morrison-Tarv= id of Bridgeford Flying Services in Napa. "We've seen a lot of customers who were sitting on the fence before." What's more, she said, "We're seeing families that are taking personal vacations" on chartered aircraft, which more typically have been used by business travelers. The latter are still the primary customers, according to Bridgeford General Manager Mark Willey. "It wasn't a cost benefit for them before," he said. "But when you factor in the delays at the airport, the probability that the airline =1Fwon't go as scheduled and all those security issues, it becomes more affordable." Air charter is an especially attractive alternative when the destination is a town like Bakersfield that's underserved by commercial airlines, said Chris Brown, owner of Centurion Flight Services in Palo Alto. Brown can get a party of five to Bakersfield and back aboard a single-engine Cessna 210 for as little as $236 per person. According to Orbitz, the online booking service, commercial rates from S= an Francisco to Bakersfield range from $316 to $430 round trip. Most routes involve one or more plane changes. America West, for example, will return you to SFO from Bakersfield with aircraft changes in Phoenix and Las Vegas. Total trip time: seven hours. On Brown's high-performance, one-prop airplane, the flight takes four hours each way. Chartering an aircraft smartly requires you to consider how far you're going, how long it will take and how many people are coming along. Smaller airplanes cost less per hour, but take more time to reach the destination. "There comes a point where it becomes cheaper to take a bigger, faster airplane," said Christie Hutchinson of Woodland Aviation, located north of Sacramento. She figures that point to be at about 450 miles. Hutchinson's notion of a small aircraft is a Beech Baron, which can pick up a group of skiers at the San Carlos Airport and drop them off at Truckee 54 minutes later, at a cost of $326 each. Woodland can also use its Gulfstream and Lear jets to ferry customers to the East Coast or anywhere in Canada, Mexico or the Caribbean at if-you-have-to-ask-you-can't-afford-it prices. Most air charter companies park similar aircraft in their hangers. The large jets are perfect for long hauls, while the smaller piston airplanes can be used to take people to little airports shunned by commercial carriers. The most efficient use of air charter is on a one-day, out-and-back trip, typically for business meetings. Alas, the expenses =1Fdon't end with the basic charter fee. It costs money to keep a plane on the ground at its destination. Take the Citation or six-passenger Astra jets owned by Bridgeford, which, like all air charter companies, charges a minimum of two hours of flight time a day for airplanes that are resting on the tarmac waiting for clients. A weeklong trip, including five days of downtime, could add up to $40,000, said spokeswoman Cheli Morrison-Tarvid. To which we can only say: Gulp. On our hypothetical flight to Bakersfield for - let's say - a five-hour meeting, our passengers will pay $35 an hour for ground time, adding $175 to the overall cost. Another cost sample: On a weekend ski trip to Sun Valley, Idaho, eight passengers would fork out just under $1,000 apiece for transportation. That would include flight time and $500 a day to park a King Air plane while they played on the slopes. If you want to fly only one way, the cost becomes prohibitive for all but the outrageously rich. That's because you have to rent the plane in both directions, whether you travel each leg or not. There is a system for cutting this expense: Outfits such as Leg Seek.com out of Miami Springs, Fla., specialize in placing passengers on the return leg of one-way charter flights. The company said that "These empty legs are, at times, less than half the price of the regular private air charter fare." When checked last week, the Web site, www.legseek.com, listed pending flights between California and New Jersey aboard a Gulfstream III jet, California to Florida on a Hawker 800, California to Oklahoma on a Challenger 604 and flights to California from Maryland, New York, Tennessee and Virginia. There's another way to snip airlines out of your flying picture: Become a pilot and buy or rent your own little aircraft. Lots of people do. At Oakland Flyers, a flying club based at Oakland International Airport, it costs between $6,000 and $7,000, on average, to get a pilot's license, said manager Jim Gray. One of the club's Cessna 172 aircraft, a basic aviation workhorse, will get you, the spouse and two kids to a Los Angeles airport like Santa Monica in three hours for about $80 a person. Buying an airplane is not always as expensive as most people imagine. A serviceable two-place Ercoupe - high on the fun-to-fly scale - can be found for $15,000. It will take you straight where you're going at 110 miles an hour, with no stop signs. Another 10 grand will put you in a Cessna 150, probably the safest aircraft ever built. Then you've got to pay to park it, maintain it and insure it. Gray said his flight school is not getting lots of calls from people who want to abandon airlines in favor of fly-it-yourself travel. Mostly, Oakland Flyers students people who "are passionate about flying," he said. . Get in touch: Bridgeford Flying Services, 2030 Airport Rd., Napa, CA 94558; phone: (707) 224-0887; Web: www.bfsnapa.com. Centurion Flight Services, P.O. Box 51396, Palo Alto, CA 94303; phone: (800) 983-5444 or (650) 494-7812; Web: www.centurion fs.com. Woodland Aviation: P.O. Box 1157, Woodland, CA 95776; phone: (800) 442-1333; Web: www.woodlandaviation.com. Leg Seek.com: 4471 N.W. 36th Street, #231, Miami Springs, FL 33166; phone: (866) 534-7335; Web: www. legseek.com; e-mail: info@aircharternetwork.com. Oakland Flyers: P.O. Box 6033, Oakland, CA 94603; phone: (510) 568-3317; Web: www.oaklandflyers.com; e-mail: oakflyer@mindspring.com. E-mail your Sensible Traveler questions and comments to mdougan@sfchronicle.com.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2002 SF Chronicle