Your Family, Your Friends...Your Airplane
Written by Craig Kaminer
Photo by Lou Bopp
Even before the COVID pandemic, high on people’s wishlist was -- and still is -- access to a private jet. No advanced booking, bypassing the lines and security, gourmet food, a welcoming crew who knows you by name and are genuinely happy to see your pets, ...without needing a letter from a mental health professional. With everyone now wearing masks, social distancing, and avoiding crowded places, private jet travel -- buying aircraft, fractional ownership, membership programs and chartering -- is on the rise.
While private jets are being used less right now for business travel, discretionary travel has more than made up the difference. When you finally make the decision to break up the monotony of staying at home binge watching Netflix, you can be in Northern Michigan, The Hamptons, Maine or The Rockies in under two hours without coming into contact with anyone but your flight companions. Additionally, if you are planning to head back to Florida, CA, AZ or the Big Sky's of the Northwest for the winter, you may want to book a jet now as one-way bookings are heating up.
SpiritJets, one of the original jet companies offering sales & acquisitions, management and charter services in St. Louis, specializes in servicing predominantly St. Louis travelers. Compared to larger, national private jet companies which stop at multiple cities throughout the day with their fleet of hundreds of jets, SpiritJets will fly to Naples, for example, drop off their client, and return with another family coming back to St. Louis. With their fleet of economical light jets to the global capability of their large cabin jets, they can handle just about anything with their superbly maintained aircraft, personalized service, and prices often significantly less than their national competition.
Even if you are chartering or utilize a membership card for just 20 hours a year, there’s something nice about knowing the SpiritJets team on a first name basis. At SpiritJets, any plane you use feels like your plane because you will likely fly the same jet regularly, compared to other companies where you don’t know anyone, each flight you are on a different plane with a different crew, and it feels like you are being picked up by an Uber. According to the SpiritJets team, “Some people may not care, but our clients do.”
Mike Liebetrau, Director of Flight Operations at SpiritJets, began his corporate aviation career 15 years ago flying Learjets. Today, he is currently Director of Flight Operations, and where he has been for the past 5 years, but like many on the SpritJets team, he continues to fly as an International Captain on the Gulfstream 550. Mike also oversees the company’s flight standards, policies, and procedures.
“My decision to choose the private sector of aviation over the airlines began when I realized why people fly private. It’s the trust and compassion that passengers have when they see the same friendly faces. The trust part comes easy, when you know the team providing your flight experience. Knowing your pilots, knowing your flight coordinators, and knowing your aircraft mechanics, makes the trust part easy. They have confidence that we are giving them the safest airplane, with the safest pilots, worked on by the safest mechanics...because we are. Being a smaller local niche operator, allows us to maintain that close working relationship with our clients.”
Krista Luehmann interacts with clients and her flight coordinator team daily to custom tailor each client’s flight experience. By the client simply providing the destination, Krista and her team will find the closest airport, organize ground transportation, and arrange all catering requests for the flight.
“Our clients only need to focus on one thing, their destination. Whether this is your first flight, or you’re a seasoned traveler with us, you will quickly sense familiarity. You will talk to the same flight coordinators, and see the same faces piloting your airplane. Knowing our clients intimately and exceeding their expectations is what sets us apart.”
As commercial flight schedules and routes become more limited, crowds at airports become more scary, and the pandemic lingers into the 3rd and 4th Quarters, private jet travel becomes more and more attractive. And if you haven’t considered it before, you may be surprised to find out you are the perfect candidate.