Originally Posted by
gegarrenton
There is almost no one of sound mind that would chose any commercial flight over a private one.
Not a majority but there are a few more than "almost no one" that do choose airlines over private aviation in certain circumstances. My business deals with these "very special"
types that fly private and it's not all that uncommon to run across clients that prefer airline first class for long-haul travel. Although to bring this back on topic, I've never once had a client mention they prefer
AA international F to the corporate Gulfstream or Global. But BA, CX, EK, LH, SQ... absolutely!
If you are looking at a Citation V sized plane, you are looking at RJ sized routes. A Citation III, MD80 routes. To get into transcons and such, a Citation X, which is plenty spacious and the fastest civilian airplane in the world. This doesn't even get into the catering, not having to deal with airport and security, non stop, or any other amount of minutiae that go along with it. It's not even close.
For North American travel that's a fairly accurate snapshot of why corporate aviation is a critical business tool for those for whom time is money. I'd also add privacy/corporate security as another key factor (CEOs and CFOs probably shouldn't be leaving their laptop screens visible or conversing over M&A strategy in the F cabin of an MD-80 - although heck those beasts are so noisy up front good luck getting the CFO in the seat next to you to hear you, let alone that competitor in the row behind...)
But at any rate, once you start looking at 10+ hour flights (and the possibility of involuntary visits to Anchorage, Gander, Goose Bay, etc., depending on what type of airplane you have), even Gulfstreams can start to feel pretty small, especially with more than a couple people on board.
If you see a celeb or athlete on there, it because they didn't feel like shelling out the coin, nothing more, nothing less.
In the case of corporate COOs and CFOs there's also the distinct possibility that they just plain don't want to be in a confined space with the boss for any length of time - getting dumped on with a bunch of additional work is about the
best possible outcome facing deputies forced to fly private with the boss on his plane!