Fractional
ownership overview
What
is Fractional Aircraft Ownership?
| In
1986, Mr. Richard Santulli had been considering purchasing
a business aircraft for his own use, which would be
managed by his company. After determining he'd
fly approximately 100-150 hours annually, he realized
that he could not justify the cost of acquiring and
operating his own plane. He discussed the possibility
of sharing ownership with three of his friends.
Although the economics clearly made sense, it became
apparent that the very reasons for having your own aircraft
(leave when you want, go wherever you want) were negated
by having three other owners. Needless to say,
the boundaries of their friendship would have been stretched. |
Image
courtesy of Paul Bowen Photography
|
Santulli
then decided that if he could design a program with the
economics of multiple ownership, but with guaranteed service,
he would create something with an enormous market potential.
Thus, the birth of Fractional Ownership.
____________________________________________________________
AIRSPRINT INC. is Canada's first and only coast-to-coast
fractional ownership program. You don't buy shares
in a corporation - you don't invest in a partnership deal.
You actually purchase an "undivided interest"
in a specific, serial-numbered aircraft. Your ownership
for both tax and legal purposes is no different than if
you owned the entire plane. The size of the undivided
interest you purchase is directly proportional to the number
of hours you typically fly in a year. In the AirSprint
program, each 1/8th interest entitles the owner to one hundred
occupied hours per year. And "occupied"
means exactly that. Within North America, the AirSprint
program is completely indifferent to location. You
are only charged for your occupied hours - not for any hours
required to bring the aircraft to you. And it is not
a time-sharing program where you can't use your aircraft
if one of the other owners is using it. You are guaranteed
that when you call for your airplane, either your aircraft,
an identical one, or perhaps even a better one will be dispatched.
In
addition, your costs are guaranteed and predictable for
a minimum of five years, and we sell your interest on your
behalf at a price based upon the fair market value of your
specific aircraft - should you ever decide to leave the
program.
How does AirSprint compare
to chartering or full aircraft ownership?
As
a rule of thumb, if you fly less than 50 hours a year, charter
flying typically can meet your needs. If you fly more
than 400 to 500 hours per year, most often out of one location,
and if you need only one aircraft per day, then full aircraft
ownership is likely to be a better alternative. But
if your flight time ranges from 50-500 hours per year, or
you need multiple aircraft, AirSprint is the most cost-effective
solution for you.
Why do some companies or individuals
flying more than 400 hours annually use AirSprint?
A
question we're often asked is, "well, if full aircraft
ownership can be justified when flying 400+ hours, why do
companies or individuals that fly more than 400 hours a
year choose fractional ownership? The answer is that
they typically have multiple locations or have a number
of people that may need to simultaneously fly to meet their
travel profile. AirSprint best meets their needs because
of our multiple aircraft guarantee, guaranteed availability,
guaranteed and predictable costs and no maintenance concerns.
In effect, they buy a fraction of an aircraft and get a
fleet.
Why do some companies who
already own aircraft use AirSprint?
AirSprint
also proves to be an ideal supplement to companies that
have invested in corporate aviation. A combination
of full aircraft ownership and AirSprint fractional ownership
can sometimes both decrease costs and increase aircraft
availability for many companies.
What type of training do pilots at AirSprint receive?
Next
time you fly privately, or commercially, stick your head
in the cockpit. Is it "all glass" (i.e.,
digital displays featuring the latest computer-generated
technology)? Or does the instrument panel look like something
that General Doolittle might have used several decades ago?
While you're there, ask the pilots how many days of training
they receive annually.
At
AirSprint, our aircraft cockpits are "state-of-the-art."
And our pilots undergo recurrent flight training annually,
with recurrent flight-simulator training annually or
bi-annually at Flight Safety or PanAm International Flight
Training Centre respectively. We believe that there
is nothing more critical than having superbly qualified
pilots. Just to apply to become a captain with AirSprint,
a candidate must have a minimum of 3000 hours of flight
experience. However, the average new AirSprint captain
joins us with 4,000 hours of flying experience.
What's the average age of
the aircraft in the AirSprint fleet?
AirSprint
usually purchases and manages new aircraft. And when
we say we sell new aircraft, we mean new - not 6 months,
or 6 years, or even 20 years old. Fractional aircraft
ownership has revolutionized business aviation. Some
aviation companies have raised their hands to say they also
offer fractional aircraft ownership programs. However,
frequently they don't have the infrastructure, experience,
the operating environment or the financial strength to support
a fractional aircraft program. It takes years to develop
the expertise to successfully manage and guarantee the safe,
consistent high-quality service that AirSprint provides.
Some
fractional ownership providers offer used aircraft (often
10-20 years old). After buying them at fair market
value, they paint them, perhaps perform some cosmetic changes
and then mark them up for their profit. Therefore,
you are not buying the aircraft at its true fair market
value. At AirSprint, we earn our profit by negotiating
discounts on new aircraft with the manufacturers and by
operating the program as efficiently as possible, not by
adding an arbitrary amount to our cost.
We
guarantee that every airplane in the fleet - regardless
of how long the AirSprint owner decides to keep it - will
be mechanically excellent, that its cabin will be in superb
condition and that its flight crew will be well-trained
and proficient in that aircraft.
When can I start flying with
AirSprint?
