BusinessJets

Four Reasons Business Jets Are Back in Style

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Wings

Private jet travel is back! When we were in the depths of the financial crisis, the best way to fly was a sure way to attract criticism, especially when the Detroit auto executives showed up before Congress a year ago and had to explain why ailing companies were forced to shell out for the perk. Well, the private jets are coming back into style, but it's more for pleasure than business.

Business jet manufacturers delivered only 615 in the first three quarters of 2009, a steep decline of 37.8 percent year-over-year, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. According to Jack Petlon, CEO of Cessna, though, there are signs of life. "With the financial collapse that occurred there was a lot of anger, a lot of hurt, a lot of people reaching out and striking at what became an image and the image was a corporate business jet," he told Forbes. He continued, "We as an industry are now spending our time righting that wrong perception."

Here are four facts you may not have know about business (and private) aviation:

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Bombardier Adjusts Business Jet Forecast

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

Just how bad is the future for the business jet industry? One of the industry giants, Bombardier has amended its 10-year industry forecast dropping the amount of jets it says will be produced. The aircraft manufacturer now says that around 11,500 business jets will be delivered between 2009 and 2018 with revenue of around $256 billion for the industry. This represents a 15 percent drop from last year's predictions. The company believes that the eventual return of global economic growth will also result in a strong recovery in the demand for business jets. The forecast for commercial aircraft in the 20- to 149-seat range calls for 12,400 new aircraft deliveries in the 20-year period from 2009 to 2028, a slight downturn from last year's prediction.

Bombardier has announced 4,360 employees will be laid off in Canada, the United States and Northern Ireland. The AP also reports that Cessna has announced more layoffs. This means that Cessna, a major maker of small planes, has laid off 44 percent of its work force since the first job cuts in November.

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Tags: bombardier, business jets, BusinessJets

Business Jets See Drop In U.S. Demand

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings

At the recent Farnborough International Air Show, usually abuzz with the latest in jet envy, market experts were instead agreeing that the U.S. demand for business jets has softened considerably. And some companies are pulling the plug on private jet travel unless the circumstances truly justify it. Supposedly due to the current economic downturn and not a response to surging fuel costs, the decrease in U.S. demand for corporate jets is in stark contrast to burgeoning sales in Russia and the Middle East, whose new moguls are shelling out between $3 and $40 million for aircraft ordered at the air show.

It's not that execs are flying commercial -- the rough equivalent of trading in your Lamborghini for a used minivan full of crying babies -- but they are chartering flights instead of buying their own wings. Business jetsetters are turning more frequently to NetJets fractional ownership or a Marquis jet card, a kind of jet use debit card. Not exactly the Greyhound of the skies just yet, a Marquis jet card starts at $126,900 for 25 hours of flight time. And you won't have the joy of pimping out your cabin like that renowned Airbus A380, whose on-board hot tub and "desert oasis" tacked on an additional $150 million to the aircraft's pricetag.

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Tags: airbus a380, AirbusA380, bombardier, business jets, BusinessJets, marquis jet card, MarquisJetCard, netjets, private jet, PrivateJet