Depends on when you buy the J seat, and at what fare it is offered. If private aviation is cheaper, than all the power to them. But in general, YYC YYZ in J? Wow. Seems excessive.

And $2500 an hour only gets you a small jet.. Plus, correct me if IM wrong, but you usually have to pay the round trip for the jet and/or ground expenses....

Corporate types, commercial is too expensive in situations where time is money, and the time lost during travel is more expensive than the time on the ground.

Celebs typically fly in a private jet if A) their production/management company is footing the bill or B) they really feel like dropping $25k+ per flight hour.

I only know a couple of celebs and wealthy people (DJ's and Silly Valley start-up types) who typically fly F or J and rarely fly private unless someone else is pickup up the tab - even though they can easily afford it. They just have better use or their money I suppose.

No, Netjets, Flexjet, etc are fractional owenership of private jets. Think property timeshare.

Fractional owners can rent or lease their unused time. There is a whole trading market for the exchange of fractional ownership flight hours.

Depends on the type of work being done. I know of people who came into work at 8am with no indication of any travel, and by 11am they're on a jet going to Asia.

There are many cases where last minute travel comes up, and sending a team of 4 -6 last minute by private aviation is much cheaper than commercial. Also, in many cases private aviation gets people closer to where they need to be than commercial. Time is money and no one (well almost no one) is making money while they're in the air.

It varies. Sometimes it's included, sometimes you pay 50% of the hourly rate for positioning. My point is that there are situations in which the cost of private travel is in the same ballpark as the AC mass transit experience.

Also keep in mind the time saved. You drive your car right up to the airplane on the ramp. You're in your seat literally seconds after arriving at the airport. Same thing at the other end -- taxi right up to your car waiting on the ramp.

And the flight departs when you are ready to go. The schedule is yours, not the airline's.

There seems to be a common belief that private air travel is an extravagance. Having high value, talented employees spend their time being herded through the public transit system, waiting in lines, suffering delays, seems like wasteful squandering of resources.

I bill an insane $/hour, but I don't fly private. I don't think flying private is as cheap/feasible as you make it out to me. But hey maybe i'm wrong.

Flying private can mean anything from a King Air, HondJet, Cessna VLJ, Challenger, Falcon X, to G5/G6 Global Express and price ranges to go along.

If your work takes you anywhere that require more than 90 minutes driving, then it may be a good idea to look into private aviation. ;)

It sounds like you might be a candidate. If you go on a 1000 mile round trip, that might cost you around $7000 in a light jet. You could easily save 4 hours of your time. Multiply that by a billing rate of $1500 (just guessing) and it seems to me you're ahead.

With executives maknig $30,000, 30 minutes spent checking in and clearing security make corporate aviation pay for itself.

King Airs are not piston engine.

Most water bombers are owned by Corporations who charter to governments.
ie: Air Spray, Conair, Buffalo.

Here's an article on Walmart Canada's Learjet.

Inded. Brain fart. I meant to write Cessna twins (like the 400 series).

As for the water-bombers et. al., my point was they are listed as "private' but I do not count them as private aviation in the sense that one would not usually use them to fly from point A to point B. They are, for all intents and purposes, utility aircraft and would bring the number down from the 740 listed.

Ok I don't bill quite that much, so I guess i'm stuck in Y :D :D

There's a simple solution: raise your rate ;)

And what is this thing people call "Y"? :D

I didn't know that SAP was a Canadian Celebrity :p

Famous Quebec film director Denys Arcand a few days ago at the INT YUL MLL on his way to CDG... attracted attention in the J cabin...

The only time our team ever flies private is for short-to-medium hops when the schedule doesn't line up - for example LAX-PTY last month, when the only direct commercial flight left at the wrong time.

Private often comes out cheaper than J, especially with 4-6 people on a short hop.