Terry Hess says the comfort level of charter planes is similar to what you’d find in first class, though his services are completely customized to the client’s wants, including catering. While Crystal Air doesn’t currently offer Wi-Fi on its flights, customers can listen to XM Radio with provided headphones, says Taylor Newman.For many, the idea of flying by private jet is an unattainable luxury, something available only to celebrities and members of the 1 percent. But it may not be as out of reach as you’d think.
“It takes a paradigm shift in the way you think about travel,” says Terry Hess, pilot and owner of local air charter service HessJet.
And it seems that more and more people are open to changing the way they think when it comes to seeing charter air service as a viable option. “Demand is definitely increasing,” says Hess. From 2016 to 2017, the number of charter flights from Chattanooga increased by about 16 percent, according to the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport Authority’s operations summary for December 2017. “The economy has a lot to do with it,” Hess says, explaining that, as with most expenses people consider luxuries, charter air service is among the first types of businesses to suffer when the economy isn’t doing well. Though, says Taylor Newman, director of operations for fellow Chattanooga charter service Crystal Air, the cost per seat is comparable to flying first class on a scheduled flight with a carrier such as Delta.
Crystal Air owner Taylor NewmanA charter flight would be less economical for an individual than for a group, as you often pay the same rate to rent the plane regardless of the number of passengers. Nonetheless, just one or two passengers is the norm on a typical trip with either HessJet or Crystal Air. “Same-day-round-trip flights are the most cost-effective way to use charter,” Hess says. The overnight costs, and other expenses such as food and rental cars, that a same-day charter flight allows you to avoid – in addition to the time saved – often offset the additional cost of flying charter, especially when flying for business.
“Time is money,” says Frank Haren, owner of Etowah, Tennessee-based Haren Construction Company, who’s flown with Crystal Air for business six times over the past year and a half. Haren says charter travel allows him to get in and out of small airports more efficiently and offers more flexibility than scheduled flights. “It helps us open up some strategic business opportunities because we can get there and meet face-to-face,” he adds.
Lynn Schuster, office administrator for local law firm Baker Donelson, has used Crystal Air to fly to Memphis for meetings once a year for the past five or six years. The convenience of being able to fly on your own schedule rather than an airline’s, and of dealing directly with the operator (what other pilot gives you his personal cellphone number?), are the main benefits, she says, as well as the fact that she can get to Memphis and back in half a day and still be able to work the other half of the day.
When most people think of flying, they think of scheduled flights with commercial carriers such as Delta, American or United Airlines that operate out of major airports. With charter flights, customers pay for the pilot’s services and to rent the aircraft, and can therefore leave whenever they’d like rather than on the airline’s schedule. They can also forget about arriving the recommended two hours prior to a scheduled flight and waiting in line to go through security before making their way to the gate – hence Crystal Air’s tagline, “Airline. Minus the line.” Passengers on charter flights can typically pull their car right up to where they board their plane, which is often a private hangar, such as the Wilson Air Center at the Chattanooga Airport, and there are rarely delays on the tarmac. “It takes about five minutes to leave once you get to the airport,” Hess says.
Chartered flights allow you to make multiple stops in a day, says Hess, which is especially beneficial when it comes to business travel. And charter planes can take passengers places they can’t go with scheduled carriers, which use only a small portion of the 5,000 airports nationwide to which Hess offers service. The difference can be most easily compared to taking mass transit in a major city vs. taking a taxi, he says.
Scheduled flights do take less time in the air, but Newman says that typically, the time saved is more than canceled out in layover time. For example, Crystal could get Chattanoogans to Greenville, South Carolina, in an hour in its four-seat Cessna 172, or in 45 minutes in its six-seat Piper Malibu. On a scheduled carrier, the same trip would take about two and a half hours from Chattanooga, if you can find a flight with a short 45-minute layover in one of the connecting airports.
HessJet owner Terry Hess with an Eclipse 500.Crystal Air is a regional operation offering service within about 400 miles of Chattanooga, with destinations including Washington, D.C., Chicago, Dallas and Orlando being about as far as the carrier goes, Newman says. Also one of the airline’s eight pilots, he says the majority of his clients are traveling on business to locations such as the Carolinas, Memphis and other parts of West Tennessee.
Some clients also use his services for vacations, such as spring or fall break trips to Destin, Panama City or Apalachicola, Florida, and it’s not unusual for groups of football fans to charter a same-day flight to a big game. HessJet flies to airports in 48 states, with those in Texas, Colorado and New York among the most popular outside the Southeast.
HessJet clients fly in one of the company’s two, four-seat Eclipse 500 twin-turbofan jets. Crystal Air operates five planes: a four-seat Cessna 172, a six-seat Cessna 206, a Piper Seneca and a six-seat Piper Malibu. Newman says he is also in the process of acquiring nine-seat planes to meet the demand in the local market. Right now he’s having to bring in planes from Nashville, Knoxville or Atlanta to accommodate larger parties.
Cost Comparison
HessJet offers a flat rate of $995 plus tax per seat for four passengers for same-day-round-trip flights to destinations within an hour-and-30-minute radius of Chattanooga, which includes Charleston, the Gulf Coast and St. Louis. The cost of a multi-day trip would basically double the cost of a same-day-return trip, as you’re essentially paying for two round-trip flights, Hess explains.
A round-trip flight to Memphis with Crystal starts at $780 per seat for both same-day returns and multi-weekday trips. At press time, as travel prices change frequently, booking a same-day-round-trip flight to Memphis with Delta in first class would cost $628-$634 for the cheapest and shortest options, which include one- to three-hour layovers in Atlanta. For a multi-day trip to Memphis, leaving on a Tuesday and returning that Thursday, it would cost $634 to fly Delta in first class.
A multi-day, round-trip flight to the Gulf Coast with Crystal Air starts at $850 per seat. The carrier offers multi-day trips from spring to fall break. The cost is the same no matter how large your group, though you may share a plane with others. The shortest and cheapest flights to Destin on Delta in first class would run you $491-$579.
WHAT YOU’LL PAY: Charter vs. Scheduled
Same-day-round-trip to Memphis: $780/seat (Crystal Air) vs. $628-$634 (Delta)
Tuesday-Thursday round-trip to Memphis: $780/seat (Crystal Air) vs. $634 (Delta)
Saturday-Saturday round-trip to Destin: $850/seat (Crystal Air) vs. $711-$746 (Delta)
Same-day-round-trip to Chicago: $995/seat (Hess) vs. $648-$656 (Delta)
Tuesday-Thursday round-trip to Chicago: $1,990/seat (Hess) vs. $648-$656 (Delta)