Business travelers are faced with added airport hassles, fewer commercial flights, and predicted cost increases after the air assaults on New York City and Washington, D.C. So they’re looking for travel alternatives, which means Nashville’s charter airlines anticipate a busy spell.
Middle Tennessee is home to about two dozen locally based charter airlines. Most of them say business has increased dramatically since the terrorist attacks, not that any of them take any pride in profiting indirectly from the terrorism.
“The phone has been ringing a lot,” says Bob Edwards, the owner of Jet Air. “Business had been slowing down because many companies were cutting back on travel expenses. But now things have picked up to above where they were before it dropped off.”
Beyond the practical nuisances of flying commercial, more people are hiring charters out of fear. “There are some real nervous people out there,” Edwards says. “People get a lot of comfort when they know everyone’s face on the plane.”
With only two aircraft, Jet Air is one of the smaller charter businesses in the area. Larger ones include Nashville Jet Charter (six planes), Averitt Air (seven planes), and Corporate Flight Management (12 planes). “I would guess that what has happened will mean more business for charters,” says Allen Howell, who started Corporate Flight Management in 1982. “The charter industry was already growing before this happened, though, because the airlines have been growing less and less geared to the business traveler.”
Key to justifying the expense of charter flights is realizing there is strength in numbers. The most common charter aircraft seats eight people, but the trips cost the same no matter how many seats are filled. Nashville Jet Charter, for example, will fly round-trip to Atlanta for $2,585—that’s $1,292 each for two executives or a reasonable $323 each for eight passengers.
Charter airlines also make more financial sense if the intended destination is far from a major airport. After all, there are about 5,000 airports in the continental United States; only about 65 of them are commonly used by large commercial fleets. “If you do business in Texas, you often can’t fly to where you need to go if you fly commercial,” says Haylee Waddey, the director of marketing for Nashville Jet Charter. “But we can fly you to any corner of the state.”
Charter airlines are also quick to point out the hassle-free nature of their service. In its promotional literature, Nashville Jet Charter trumpets these advantages to using its service: “You make the schedule,” “There is no need to arrive early,” and “You get total privacy.”
Three Nashville industries that rely heavily on charter airlines are health care, country music, and construction. “We use charters all the time,” says Hardaway Construction president L. Hall Hardaway Jr. “It depends a lot on who’s going and how many are going, but the economics often make charters a better deal.”
Ray Bell, the owner of Bell Construction, says his business also frequently uses charter airlines. “When you have to get to places like Cordele, Ga., or Pennington Gap, Va., or Corinth, Miss., you can’t fly commercial, or you’ll never get there,” he says.
Transportation needs are so great at Bell Construction that the company also owns its own plane, housed and cared for by Averitt Air. Many Nashville companies have followed suit. Dollar General and Central Parking both own airplanes for use by corporate executives. HCA has two planes; in fact, both HCA chairman Thomas Frist Jr. (a former Air Force flight surgeon) and CEO Jack Bovender are licensed pilots. Corrections Corporation of America usually leases an airplane from co-founder and board member Thomas Beasley for its executives.
If the charter business rises dramatically, some of the charter airlines say they will buy more aircraft and hire more pilots. “We’re still not certain whether what is happening is a short- or long-term thing,” Howell says. “As far as hiring and buying are concerned, we would probably make a decision like that after we see what happens in October and November.”
But not everyone says they will ramp up, regardless of demand. “I don’t have any ambition to make this company any bigger than it is,” says Edwards, who started Jet Air in 1976. “I’m getting old and gray-headed, and I have a nice small business that has done very well and had an immaculate safety record. I’m just about where I want to be.”
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