"I prefer no fuel stops, prioritize reliability, prefer something in the 2010-2016 vintage, and is pilot friendly."
Sovereign. 16 years/4000hrs+ on it as chief pilot and mx manager for a corporate flight department. Its not a totally "sophisticated" airplane, but certainly a workhorse. And one often overlooked item is training costs - were the Sov was (off the Cessna since 2 years, so cant vouch for the current prices) - was roughly half the price a annual refresher and initial of the airplane it was replaced with at our ops, which is not that much bigger. Plus the current airplanes sims are always booked to the brim, it seems.
From a European perspective (might be different in the US) I´d say, fractionals are more expensive from a certain point on (the break even for varies of course a lot, my guess is about 80-100hrs) and sometimes - I´m told by actual clients of the biggest dog in that business - they seem not to be really that focused on customer satisfaction. These clients have now ordered a new airplane and will start their own ops as soon as they get it.
Last edited by His dudeness; 12th Apr 2024 at 09:29.