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Making Plane Sense
Fluto Shinzawa with Bill Quinn
12/01/2003
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Mateo liked the flexibility of Sentient’s program—owners can exit the program whenever they want and are reimbursed any unused dollars in their account—but he had concerns that centered on not knowing beforehand which aircraft he would be flying. "It’s a little bit cheaper, but am I willing to risk an organization that doesn’t have the safety infrastructure?" he asked. "Am I willing to accept the fact that any one of these planes will show up? And I’m not quite sure, until 24 hours before it arrives, which plane I’m going to get and whether it will really meet my mission."
Mateo decided to go fractional. The question was which provider to choose.
Plane Comes First
Many prospective fractional owners err at the start of the selection process. They compare different providers, cross-shopping between CitationShares, Flexjet, Flight Options, and NetJets. Quinn advises his clients against this approach; instead, they should start by cross-shopping aircraft. With Quinn’s guidance, Mateo decided that the range, luggage capacity, and speed of the Citation Excel would make the Cessna product his preferred plane. "The Excel product did the most for addressing his needs at the most reasonable cost and expense," Quinn said. "The price point considerations were acceptable to him."
Today, CitationShares and NetJets are the only fractional providers that fly the Excel. A one-sixteenth Excel share through CitationShares is cheaper, but Quinn pointed out that NetJets had more offerings if Mateo wanted to purchase additional hours or upgrade to a larger plane. The 1,829-mile range (carrying two passengers) of the Excel, which is the largest aircraft in the CitationShares fleet, prevents it from making a nonstop five-hour Los Angeles to Honolulu flight. If Mateo did not want to charter a plane for his flights to Hawaii, he could upgrade in the NetJets program to a Citation X, which could make the journey.
Mateo liked the Citation X, the fastest business jet on the market, but it was too much plane for his needs. "If I wasn’t going to be flying to Hawaii, the X was overkill," he explains. "Based on where I would fly the Excel domestically, it is just more than adequate, and the X is about 40 percent more, so it didn’t make any sense." The Excel would be Mateo’s plane, and NetJets would most likely be his provider—following the proper research.
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