Wondering what it’s like to fly in luxury? Take a look around this private jet in KC

For most of us, flying means long lines, squeezing into tiny airplane seats and plenty of waiting around.

But for those with the means to travel in style, charter jets are the way to go.

The charter flight industry is big business and it’s getting bigger, even in Kansas City.

According to the industry market research firm, IBIS World, the private charter industry has seen growing demand over the past five years “as the broader economy improved, corporate profit reached record highs and per capita household income increased.”

Furthermore, says IBIS World, it’s expected to continue growing over the next five years.

“You don’t have to hassle with the airlines, and you don’t have to go through security checking your bags,” says Tom Cargin, owner of Air Associates of Kansas, which maintains and handles charter scheduling for private jets in the Kansas City area.

“Generally, we can land in airports closer to your home and business, so that opens up a lot of airports. Plus it’s just a nicer environment. You have your associates with you, and you can talk business during the flight.”

And the biggest selling point of all, Cargin and other industry experts point out, is you’ll save time.

“You can drive up to the aircraft and literally take five steps into the plane. It’s your private plane,” says Rick Colson, president of New Flight Charters in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

“You can be in the air in 10 minutes. Same thing on other end — your rental car can be on the tarmac on the other end. It could not be easier getting into the air. So rather than arriving two hours early for your flight, you can drive up five minutes before, they valet your car, the crew checks your I.D., ‘Yeah we got the right passenger,’ and you’re on the plane.”

Locally, you can book charter flights at multiple airports including the Lee’s Summit Municipal Airport, Johnson County Executive Airport and Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport, and through multiple companies like New Flight Charters, Air Associates and NetJets.

“It’s a big business,” says Keith Plumb, CEO of Executive Airshare, which charters flights but mostly sells customers partial ownership of private planes. “When you have a small company in Kansas City and they have a two to three hour business meeting in Little Rock (Ark.), they can load everyone up, fly down, have the meeting and be back by lunchtime. They can’t do that with a commercial airline. It gives them a competitive advantage because they can do a lot more with their schedule in a given day.”

Cargin gave us a tour of a Beechjet 400A that Air Associates maintains, stores, staffs and charters for a local client. It sat alongside three other gleaming private jets inside a Downtown Airport hangar that was so sterile you could perform surgery on its floor.

The interior of the plane is small — not much bigger than a cargo van — and you have to hunch over while standing inside. But it is outfitted with many of the same materials as a BMW automobile. The eight plush, roomy seats are covered in soft ivory leather and recline to a lying position.

The walls are paneled in high-gloss, burled wood that complement the gleaming brass hardware throughout. There’s a small cabinet up front, right behind the cockpit, which the Air Associates staff stocks with snacks and soft drinks. They do take special requests, Cargin notes.

The biggest private jet in the area is a Global 5000 that seats 12 passengers. Depending on what each charter client wants, it can be configured to have two or three couches and an array of captain chairs or four to six beds for overseas trips. For additional fees, the charter company will also have a cabin attendant on board to serve meals and drinks and a co-pilot.

“That’s a $40 million to $60 million aircraft new,” says Cargin.

Chartering provides an income for the planes’ owners to offset the cost of owning their airplanes, though as Cargin points out, “they’ll never make money chartering, it’ll always be an expense.”

Prices to charter flights vary wildly depending on the size of the plane and where the client is headed. A flight to and from Chicago in one day on a smaller plane carrying eight passengers, for instance, can run about $7,000. A round-trip flight for 12 passengers to Japan, with a stop or two in other countries over three days in a larger jet like a Global 5000 can cost about $250,000.

But industry experts maintain that extra hotel nights and business class tickets for the same number of people to fly to two or three cities in the far east could cost as much in time and money.

“We have clients that can now go to two or three locations in two days,” Plumb says. “With airlines it could take four or five days. We’re finding out that time is becoming even more precious. It’s a work-life balance. Trying to keep key employees out of hotel rooms and back home with families. It’s a productive, motivating tool, and it helps retain key individuals.”

The majority of people who charter private jets locally do so for business. Cargin estimates that 90 percent of Air Associates’ business is corporate clients.

“The other 10 percent,” he says, “are individuals going to college football games on the weekend. In October, we flew a lot of people to places like South Dakota for hunting, and we do a fair amount of medical work, taking people to Rochester or Houston for cancer treatments at the Mayo Clinic or Anderson. Some are people who have ongoing medical treatments and it’s not possible for them to fly airlines. Maybe they’re hooked to an IV, or they have a compromised immune system.”

Plumb estimates that Executive Airshare operates about 900 flights a year, enough that they recently applied for and received certification to fly jets with 10 or more seats. He estimates that 65 percent of the flights his company handles are for business meetings while 35 percent are for leisure.

“Some people have second homes in Florida or Arizona and want to fly back and forth on their own schedule,” says Plumb. “Sometimes it’s going for a weekend ski trip in Colorado. Or we love it when KU basketball is on a road trip. We have people who want to fly to a game and be home that night.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 8:09 AM.