http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aWad_WBhJob8&refer=home Buffett's NetJets Europe May Buy Airports to Win Runway Access By Jann Bettinga Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett's NetJets Inc. private- aircraft venture may seek to acquire control of more small airports around Europe in order to improve access to runways and reduce travel times for its executive clientele. "If there's a good opportunity to buy an airport, we may well do that," Bill Kelly, chief executive officer of the venture's NetJets Europe division, said in a telephone interview. He didn't identify potential targets. NetJets is buying a small-plane airfield in Egelsbach, a commuter town south of Frankfurt, to provide private-jet travelers with faster trips to Germany's financial capital. Kelly didn't rule out acquiring more airports should doing so help London-based NetJets Europe offer better flight connections. NetJets has no interest in becoming an airport company and its only motivation is to improve runway access, he said. Global air-passenger traffic declined for a fourth consecutive month in December as the recession and financial crisis hurt travel, according to figures from the International Air Transport Association. The economic contraction has affected NetJets Europe, causing a drop in private-jet flights of as much as 20 percent since October, Kelly said. "Certainly, 2009 is going to be tough," he said in the interview on Jan. 30. The company has pushed back "by a couple of years" deliveries of as many as seven light jets scheduled in 2009, and will add only three to five of these planes this year, Kelly said. Wealthy private clients have scaled back flights more than corporate customers, he said. Kelly declined to say whether NetJets Europe will make a profit this year. The company was profitable in 2008, he said, without providing a figure. NetJets sells time shares in private aircraft under a system known as fractional ownership. New Opportunities The financial-industry turmoil is also an opportunity to win more corporate travelers, Kelly said. "No CEO is going to go into his board in this day and age and say, 'Can I have $50 million to buy a Gulfstream'" private jet. NetJets has "a number of prospects in the pipeline for fractional sales," he said, without giving details. Egelsbach airport will be the first airfield owned by NetJets Europe, a unit of U.S. billionaire investor Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. NetJets is acquiring the strip from the municipality of Egelsbach and neighboring communities for about 3.7 million euros ($4.7 million) and plans to invest 30 million euros to 40 million euros on upgrades. Frankfurt 'Chock-a-Block' The private-jet company decided to bid on the Egelsbach assets after struggling to fly to Fraport AG's Frankfurt international airport, 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the suburb, which is "chock-a-block" amid constraints on flights, Kelly said. Frankfurt airport is Europe's third-busiest by passenger numbers, after London's Heathrow and Paris's Charles de Gaulle, and is building a fourth runway to ease capacity limits. "When our customers want to go there, we have a success rate of perhaps 30-40 percent of getting access to Frankfurt," forcing NetJets to fly to Frankfurt-Hahn airport about 100 kilometers to the west, Kelly said. The Egelsbach purchase will allow better connections to the city of Frankfurt, which is home to "lots of high-net-worth individuals," he said. The transaction is a "huge opportunity to grow our German market." Egelsbach airport doesn't serve scheduled airlines. Its vendors had to invest about 500,000 euros last year to keep the unprofitable operation in business. "We don't expect to be profitable at the airport until 2015- 2016," Kelly said. Making the airport profitable "is not our No. 1 priority," as the main goal is to "get more customers into NetJets." Flights by NetJets may serve Egelsbach as early as midyear, Scott Forbes, the plane operator's director of corporate strategy, said in an interview. To contact the reporter on this story: Jann Bettinga in Frankfurt at jbettinga@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx Last Updated: February 8, 2009 18:01 EST <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> If you wish to unsubscribe from the AIRLINE List, please send an E-mail to: "listserv@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx". Within the body of the text, only write the following:"SIGNOFF AIRLINE".