More and more individuals and businesses are choosing to fly privately to increase their options and convenience in the sky and even reap various tax benefits. People aren’t just thinking about the balance sheet, though — much of the appeal of private aviation comes from the opportunity to enhance your lifestyle.

There are many options to consider when flying private, and it’s important to evaluate the compatibility of each choice with your personal needs, in addition to analyzing the financial implications of such a large decision.

The Benefits of Private Aviation

Although it’s costly, private aviation comes with several advantages. For starters, many clients are pleased to find that flying privately greatly enhances the accessibility of certain travel destinations. Flying on a major carrier might come with some limitations because certain areas do not have adequate commercial airline services or major airports, but with a smaller, private aircraft, you fly directly to your destination without the inconvenience of layovers or long security lines.

Additionally, health concerns during the COVID-19 pandemic are influencing decisions to fly privately, as fliers are more in control of their surroundings and can therefore limit exposure to other passengers and the spread of sickness. This doesn’t just ease concerns about COVID-19, though — these benefits apply to all clients with health issues and potentially vulnerable conditions.

Factors to Consider

Flying private is not a one-size-fits-all process. There are various questions that you should ask yourself when determining the option that will best suit you and your needs. Some of these questions include:

• How long are your trips? Do you usually fly one-way or round trip?
• How many people usually travel with you?
• How many hours do you anticipate flying per year. What’s the minimum lead time you want for booking flights before departure?
• Is your need for private aviation a short-term need, business commitment, philanthropic endeavor or a permanent lifestyle change?
• How will the purchase impact contributions to your lifestyle or legacy investment portfolios?

Private Air Travel Options

There are four primary options to choose from when pursuing private aviation, including jet cards, charters, fractional ownership (leasing or sharing) or purchasing your own aircraft. The experienced advisors at Waldron are here to help you navigate these options through coordination with private aviation companies.

• Jet Cards: These are a popular choice for those who are new to private aviation and fly roughly 15 to 40 hours annually, as they provide a good balance for both private and commercial needs. Jet cards offer more flexibility than other options, functioning similar to prepaid debit cards, allowing clients to pay for their purchases up front. You only need to pay for the hours you fly.
• Charter Flights: Chartering an aircraft is another good option for those who have less experience with private aviation and less of a need. Clients should consider chartering if they plan to fly less than 15 to 20 hours per year for a mix of private and commercial trips. For example, a chartered flight might be right for someone who is planning a special family vacation or an annual work retreat, but otherwise flies commercially.
• Fractional Ownership (share or lease): Fliers should consider this option if they plan to fly more than 40 hours per year and want to invest with a three- to five-year commitment. This option is more appropriate for those who have previous experience with private aviation, as it’s meant to simulate the experience of owning your own plane, without the responsibility of managing the plane, crew, operations and maintenance.
• Purchasing Your Own Aircraft: If you fly more than 200 hours per year, purchasing an aircraft outright might be the best choice for you. This is ideal for those who regularly fly on private aircraft and plan to do so for years to come, as it is a large upfront commitment which comes with high annual costs, including the cost of capital. Clients who pursue this option must be willing to charter out a plane to offset annual costs, although it can present scheduling conflicts when it comes time to fly.

Choosing the right private aviation option may seem overwhelming at first, but Waldron is here to help you identify the best purchase option to satisfy your private aviation needs and experience one of the greatest travel luxuries in a way that is customizable to you, your family and your business.

Disclaimer

At Waldron Private Wealth, we have four “culture pillars” that we pride ourselves on and use as guideposts to develop our intra-company mindset:

1. We Are A Team
2. We Are All Entrepreneurs
3. Driven To Make A Difference
4. Mission First

To help us follow those pillars, three years ago the firm formed a Culture Committee, with a main objective of ensuring we continue to find fun activities to do together as a company, thereby boosting morale and camaraderie. It also serves the purpose of helping to maintain our tight-knit boutique culture, even as we grow beyond 50 employees. This year, however, the Culture Committee members are faced with the very tall task of maintaining our culture and office morale while we all work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are proud to see everyone embrace all four culture pillars as we find innovative ways to keep our company culture thriving while working remotely!

Since we began working remotely, however, our Culture Committee is doing a tremendous job of coming up with creative ways to keep everyone’s spirits high during these unprecedented times, using video meeting apps to keep coworkers in touch with each other and developing unique activities.

For example, we all look forward to creating a March Madness NCAA basketball bracket every March, but with the tournament canceled this year, the committee created a fun way to fill that void in our lives by creating the “Stock Market Madness” bracket. It is the same set up as the basketball bracket, but instead of picking what teams will win, we picked what stocks will outperform that day in head-to-head matchups. Personally, it is just as unpredictable as the basketball tournament!

Additionally, every Tuesday and Friday we have a “Best Stories Happy Hour,” during which we virtually get together to share our best stories on how we are helping our clients get through these difficult times, both financially and emotionally.

We are keeping alive popular traditions, too. Canceling our annual “Take Your Kids to Work Day” would seem like a reasonable option, considering we are not able to go into work ourselves — we would not accept that! Following our pillars, we are “Driven to Make a Difference” for these kids, so we sent each child a care package with coloring books, flower seeds to plant, a card for writing a thank you letter to our region’s first responders, and other various activities. The kids also had the chance to participate in virtual meetings throughout the day. The day concluded with a company-wide, kid-friendly, virtual workout, led by a member of our planning team.

Other notable activities that took place during our time in quarantine were:

• Game nights
• National Beer Day Jeopardy
• Contest to see who had the funniest/most creative video chat background
• Peloton challenge
• The virtual Pittsburgh Marathon
• “Pets of Waldron Day,” as everyone submitted pictures to introduce their pets

Winners of certain challenges had dinner sent to them and their family from their favorite family-owned restaurant, and perhaps most importantly, our CEO and president hold small group check-ins to see how everyone is doing.

We firmly believe that having a strong company culture is a key metric for success. We may be working a little harder and are getting a little more creative over the last few weeks, but working remotely is not going to stop us from having the best office culture and camaraderie possible!

Disclaimer