Private Jet Blog

The 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that struck off the cost of Japan this Friday, has caused devastating damage and continues to wreck havoc on Japanese cities and farmland in the northern part of the country. While world leaders and foreign governments pledge to provide resources and aid to Japan, private companies such as Paramount Business Jets and One Concierge are also doing their part to prepare for evacuation efforts and assistance.

Although most major airports and sea ports remain currently closed and/or inaccessible, there is an increasing demand and backlog of both commercial aircraft and vessels that need to resume service to Japan as well aircraft and vessels that need to be mobilized to evacuate people. The Sendai airport among others, and all Japanese ports have been shut down following a barrage of waves that have turned runways to rivers and capsized large vessels in the Japanese ports.

Despite this, efforts are already well underway by both Paramount Business Jets and One Concierge to mobilize a large fleet of airliner aircraft as well as passenger ships and ferries to evacuate stranded residents, visitors, foreign personnel and more from the affected areas. “We’ve established a crisis response team to deal with the current situation and are working with local charter operators and our partners in the region to help us mobilize and evacuate people as conditions permit,” said Richard Zaher, Chief Executive Officer for Paramount Business Jets. One Concierge, a leading concierge provider has dealt with similar situations in the past and has assisted in evacuation efforts for natural disasters, civil unrest and other dangerous situations. “We are fortunate to be able to work with an outstanding global network of partners to help us aid in this situation. Their local knowledge and availability of resources (such as aircraft and ships) prove invaluable in circumstances such as these and enables us to quickly and efficiently extract people from the effected areas as ports and airports open again,” said Arman Motiwalla, Chief Executive Officer for One Concierge.

Although Japanese ports and airports remain currently closed, evacuation efforts and assistance to other effected regions such as Hawaii are also underway. In order to position these vessels effectively and to cater to evacuation efforts in both Hawaii, Japan and the west coast (if needed), aircraft and ships are going to have to be re-positioned to evacuate people in the affected regions, but limited availability of these vessels is putting a high demand on available resources.

Organizations, individuals and corporations looking to charter aircraft and/or ships for large scale evacuations and/or private charters from the effected regions should contact One Concierge at +1 (800) 628-9701 and/or Paramount Business Jets at +1 (877) 727-2538.

A new proposal to fight fatigue among commercial pilots was recently proposed by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Administrator Randy Babbitt today. The new proposal seeks to reduce pilot fatigue by setting new flight time, rest and duty requirements based on fatigue science.

At current, there are varying requirements for pilot rest for domestic, international and unscheduled flights. For the purposes of on-demand charters, crews are required to have a crew rest period of a minimum of 8 hours for every 14 hours of flight duty. The new proposed rule would eliminate any differences and create a unified set of rest and duty rules for all flights. The proposal goes further to also set different requirements for pilots based on the time of day and the number of scheduled segments they’d fly. In addition, it takes into account time zones, type of flights, and additional rest times to create a more accurate picture of a pilot’s fatigue level.
One important aspect of the new rule is a re-definition of the term “flight duty”. The new proposal defines flight duty as “the period of time when a pilot reports for duty with the intention of flying an aircraft, operating a simulator or operating a flight training device.” The significant difference is that the new definition includes a pilot’s entire duty period including both “flight duty” and other tasks that do not involve flight time.

Another crucial element of the new proposal was the introduction of Fatigue Risk Management Plans (FRMPs). Recently, congress mandated that all air carriers must now develop and have have a Fatigue Risk Management Plan. Although each carrier will be able to develop its own set of policies and procedures, the FAA has prepared guidance materials to facilitate the development of FRMPs. Essentially the FRMPs will be introduced to reduce the risks of pilot fatigue and improve alertness among flight crew.
As a safety conscious organization, the introduction of more stringent standards on pilot fatigue are a welcome change to Paramount Business Jets and all of our operators. Paramount Business Jets is proud to provide our clients with private jet charters to all major jet charter cities worldwide and operators who’s safety standards are rigorously monitored and audited by third-party safety firms prior to all operations. Learn more about our safety programs.

Safety, security and confidentiality are just some of the reasons Paramount Business Jets is constantly chosen as the sole provider for private jet charter transportation solutions for governments, state departments, royal families and sensitive charter operations. Backed by an international team of trained charter specialists, security consultants and operations experts our executive service team is able to undertake any mission and understands the complexities and importance of government, royal & diplomatic travel. While confidentiality, security and safety remain top priorities we constantly strive to exceed our client’s expectations of professionalism, quality of service as well as comfort and satisfaction on board any private jet charter flight that we arrange.

Whether your mission calls for a complex international charter itinerary or a brief domestic trip, New York to Dubai or Paris to Denver, Colorado, our worldwide jet charter operations and international partners are able to serve your needs 24/7 365 days a year. Through our domestic and international partnerships we have access to premier aircraft and are able to source the most suitable private jet charter for your itinerary from a collection 14,000 aircraft around the world. Whether your needs call for a Boeing Business Jet charter or a Learjet 35, our unique partnerships and alliances ensure that we will be able to source the most cost effective aircraft for your itinerary.

In addition our concierge services are created to supplement your private jet charter travel from takeoff to touchdown, armored cars, security escorts or even simple hotel arrangements our concierge service team is able to cater to a wide variety of requests in thousands of locations around the world. To learn more about Paramount Business Jets´ premier travel program please feel free to contact us here or request a private jet quote.

The main factors that influence a client’s choice of jet charter service providers are:

Safety

In regards to safety; there are two main companies that do third party safety verifications, namely ARG/US and  WYVERN. These companies evaluate the operators, the private jet, and the pilots per given trip to make sure that they are FAA part 135 compliant. ARG/US and WYVERN have raised the bar on the transparency of safety standards in the jet charter industry and operators are motivated to achieve a higher safety rating. Some ratings require an onsite audit and some don’t, but both require verification which proves the pilots, the private jet and the operator to be airworthy and part 135 compliant. Jet charter service providers such as Paramount Business Jets conduct their own safety analysis for each flight and also consistently work with safety verification corporations such as ARG/US and WYVERN to ensure that every private jet selected far exceeds all safety requirements mandated by the FAA.

Flexibility

Flexibility is another important choice since jet charter travelers often want the luxury of being able to choose their private jet size based on the number people flying with them. There are different categories of private jet such as light private jet, mid-size private jet, and heavy private jet. Some trips may require a smaller private jet which translates into cost savings while some may require a larger private jet which may also translate into cost savings and comfort depending on the number of people traveling and the distance for the trip. Jet charter service provider such as Paramount Business Jets provides greater flexibility and choice of private jet and unlike fractional ownership or other membership programs, there are no penalty charges or other financial losses when choosing private jet types or sizes.

Cost

Last but not least the cost factor plays a very important role in determining which jet charter service provider to use for any charter flight. Since the introduction of the private jet charters in the early 1960’s people have been seeking more cost effective methods of flying privately. In 1986 Richard Santulli of Netjets introduced the concept of fractional ownership, which divided the cost of a business jet by up to sixteen people. Fractional ownership requires a large upfront investment and the hourly rates are comparatively very high when compared to jet charter services. Currently, the most cost effective options to private jet charters are on-demand charters and ‘Jet Card’ membership programs. At Paramount we encourage fractional owners to fly with us and use their expensive fractional hours as a backup. The key is to enjoy the benefits of private jet ownership and fractional ownership without being responsible for the cost that is associated with these models.

Paramount Business Jets exists in a purely competitive market in which there is potentially unlimited competition and easy entry/exit in the market. One of the major factors influencing choice of a jet charter broker is the professional credentials, experience and reputation of the company. Clients in this particular industry often seek to establish long-term relationships with jet charter providers to ensure that their stringent demands, personal preferences and requirements are met. Quite often, word of mouth marketing provides more business than advertising, although targeted advertising (especially through internet advertising campaigns) creates awareness of the company’s existence and experience level.