Perfecting the Start and End of Your Superyacht Vacation

How to ensure a perfect start (and ending) to your next superyacht vacation.

Flying privately is obviously better than dealing with airlines, congested airports, inconsistent service, and missed connections. However, as you may have experienced, it’s still possible for things to go astray when flying the private skies.

Private jets use the same air traffic control system as the airlines. Weather causes reroutes; slot restrictions and limited parking for jets at busy airports impact schedules; and refueling and the availability of customs and border officers can all lead to delays. The big fractional and charter operators work their aircraft so they can often fly multiple segments daily. In other words, you could be the victim of the domino effect. Several flight providers and one company, however, are trying to make that experience as smooth as possible.

NetJets is expanding its network of private terminals in the U.S., having opened private lounges in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Bozeman, Montana. It also announced an expansion of its facility at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey (the world’s busiest private jet airport), the opening of a dedicated lounge at LasVegas Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), and future projects in Eagle, Colorado (EGE), Atlanta, Georgia (PDK), Bedford, Massachusetts (BED), Austin, Texas (AUS), and Dallas Love Field (DAL). It has a network of NSRs, short for NetJets Service Representatives, at key airports in Europe. NSRs currently assist departing and arriving passengers at Luton and Farnborough (London), Nice, Le Bourget (Paris), Geneva, Zurich, Milan, and Palma de Mallorca.

Recently, private jet companies big and small have been trying to ensure that ground experience doesn’t interfere with a perfect flight and yacht vacation. A spokesperson says the NSRs work “across many departments and teams from logistics to flight dispatch especially during high flight demand around major sporting, art, or music events, thereby achieving a level of personalization that face-to-face interaction can only uniquely enable.”

Rival Flexjet has also been sharpening its land game. It is planning its own terminal in London to go along with its lounges at Teterboro, Westchester County, Palm Beach, Naples (Florida), Dallas, Los Angeles, and soon Scottsdale. At its Naples location, it even has space for fractional owners to store their cars during the off-season.

Amalfi Jets, a boutique broker based in Los Angeles, has a team of specialists who travel onsite for all departures for its jet card clients. In addition to ensuring catering is correct and loaded, and meeting clients when they arrive, the team reports back about the upkeep of aircraft interiors, something only sometimes possible by reviewing photos of charter aircraft.

Kolin Jones, Amalfi’s Founder & CEO, says the impetus for the white glove sendoffs came soon after he launched the brokerage. A client who booked a charter flight from Teterboro to London went to the wrong FBO – busy airports can have five or six and can be located miles apart on opposite ends of the field. The FBO was busy and didn’t have the manpower to bring him to the right FBO. As the minutes ticked away and Jones worried they would lose their arrival slot on the other side of the Atlantic, he decided that having an onsite company rep for departures would be critical for success. He hires student pilots from his alma mater, aviation university Embry-Riddle. He says that in addition to ensuring an uneventful departure, customers enjoy chatting with the greeters who are knowledgeable about the different types of charter aircraft, including their capabilities, from range and runway length to how much baggage they can fit.

Suits on the Ground is the brainchild of David Rimmer, former president of two charter operators. After seeing how things can slip through the cracks, and that FBO staff and crew are busy, sometimes arriving only an hour or so on an inbound leg, Rimmer saw the opportunity for a pay-per-use service. He taps experienced private aviation professionals and charges $1,000 per departure or arrival, plus travel expenses.

Representatives arrive at the airport three or four hours before departure and track everything from the incoming aircraft to catering, ensuring the order is complete. In some cases, they have had to recreate the catering when a provider fails to deliver. In another case, the rep drove back to the flyer’s home, where he had left his passport. “There are a lot of issues that come up where the flight crews or FBO staff simply aren’t able to help,” Rimmer says. In another case, his team was able to arrange a visa on arrival, preventing the flyer from being sent back because he didn’t have the required documents.

Rimmer says the service is popular at busy airports, particularly during significant events. “We’ve been to the last three Super Bowls,” he says, adding, “When everybody is a VIP, nobody is a VIP, so it helps to have somebody to represent your interests there on the ground at the FBO.”

Doug Gollan is President and Editor-in-Chief of Private Jet Card Comparisons, a buyer’s guide to fractional, jet card, and charter membership programs. privatejetcardcomparisons.com