Any thoughts on the new HondaJet as charter aircraft ??

[robbreid]

In the light jet market - we've had huge failures, like Day Jet - and others that have floundered - several operators that bought Mustangs.

In USA they have Wheels Up - and JetSuite - who in 5 years have grown to the 5th largest corporate jet operator by hours in the USA charter market.

Of course there is NetJets and may alike - but wondering the best route - if one had access to a dozen HondaJets - based in a major market city - within 500 miles of 250 million people ??

Fractional, Memberships, Charters - and ideas or thoughts ???

[LGW Vulture]

I did some work a couple of years ago now for a certain European entry level jet operator who has since closed its doors. I told them they had two choices - either close down the company to stop losing money ASAP or, dominate the market in terms of fleet size and obliterate any competition. They asked what number of aircraft they would need in order to break the competition - and I told them 75 minimum! They folded within three months of the conversation!

So a dozen HondaJets? - you're some 60 short IMV!

[CL300]

small jets, blanket for europe you are close to 200 airframes, otherwise positioning would offset the profits very quickly. 12 aircrafts is the BEP for optimum crew ratio.
But then the uncontrollable factor will be the crews, after the initial Yipee !! the nature of the pilot will make the flying on a small jet a chore, and the churn rate will sky-rise, offsetting one more time the profits.

All in all, small jets, small ops or nothing...You cannot "dominate" the market with small jets..

But you can have a go...:cool:

[galaxy flyer]

If DayJet couldn't make it, it ain't possible, IMO. Florida is a perfect Petri dish for this type of operation, the Eclipse might have been a good fit,butnot so much success. Florida has lousy intra-state commercial connections, lots of inter-city day travel and everyone has failed trying to meet what looked like ready demand. In Florida, it's been tried by everyone from majors to Cirrus planes. Not optimistic.

GF

[fairflyer]

Ignoring the big Frax fleet or massive air taxi fleet models, think the question was will the Hondajet do O.K. as another type in your managed fleet but available for charter? i.e. will the brokers want to book it instead of say the Mustangs, CJ1s, M2s and Phenom 100s?

It will have novelty-factor on its side.

It ought to be very cheap to operate both fuel and maintenance-wise, so it might be the cheapest 'Jet' to charter when out there.

Baggage space, pax load vs range limitations, field performance ( both take-off and landing, especially on wet runways) all critical for the lighter jet market and key limitations.

Better toilet set-up than the baby Citations helps.

Might be a reliable money-maker if it can be worked hard with several hundred hours per annum.

[CL300]

at the end , on the small jet market, it is price driven, the rest who cares ? When you see people in a Eclipse ( jet like airplane) if it is not price driven what is it ?

So the fact that the thing has wings, engines on top bottom, above or anywhere, loo, galley or else who cares ? as long as it is within the allocated budget.

on the "hard work" side, time will tell...

[Booglebox]

CL300 technically you're right but in the real world, pax / clients care about how the sales guy spoke to them on the phone, the interior of the plane, knowing the pilots, recommendation to use a certain AOC from a friend, etc. etc...

[CL300]

which is just what i wrote, nobody really cares about the type, as long as it flies..