The Good Ole’ Days
As a young, eager adult in my twenties, I started working for an aircraft charter company out of Orlando Florida. The year was 2004. These were the days when contracts, if any were used at all, were sent via fax, and phone calls from clients were made to the office by landline. Most flights were booked through the proverbial “handshake”.
The booking process went like this; the customer would call the office to check availability. The salesperson would then consult the aircraft’s schedule (usually tracked on a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet) and advise accordingly. If the aircraft was available, the salesperson would gather the desired details, route, departure times, passenger info and any catering/ground transportation requests. The flight was then dispatched. After the flight was completed, an invoice would be sent to the customer and payment was received by check (usually 30-day terms.) No pre-payments required!
Those days were simpler. Back then, the market was different. Private aircraft travel was definitely a niche service. The client pool was smaller, as was the number of nationwide aircraft available for charter. The typical charter aircraft wouldn’t sell more than 25-30 hours per month (that expectation is more than double nowadays). “Floating Fleets” and “Empty Leg Deals” were something of a novelty.
Most charter aircraft were owned by one individual. This individual would lend their aircraft to a charter management company. The company would then try to fill holes in the aircraft’s schedule with revenue producing flights. Owners and crew expected their aircraft to fly back to base after the flight was completed (with or without paying passengers).
For trips that were scheduled longer than a couple days in duration, the customer would be quoted two complete “round trips”. One “round-trip” to drop the passengers off at the destination and then another “round-trip” to return the passengers back home. This produced two so-called “empty legs”. In the past, it was expected for the client to pay for both the “live leg” and “empty leg” portions of the flight. This was an inefficient and expensive way to serve the client, but surprisingly translated into better overall customer service experiences.
Since the passengers were paying for all the positioning, the aircraft was solely dedicated to them. Passengers could change departure times or possibly even departure dates and the aircraft/crew would accommodate. Without other client’s flights packed onto the schedule (as is standard today), there was room to accommodate the primary client’s changes. Aircraft sourcing was as simple as searching for those aircraft positioned closest to the point of departure. As a result, the client usually ended up flying on the same handful of aircraft for all his/her flights. Frequent contact with the same aircraft meant that crew would learn the passengers’ preferences and develop a rapport, anticipating their needs and expectations.
Around the early 2000’s, the idea of reselling these “empty legs” started to gain traction. “Empty legs”, by definition, are the positioning flights required to pick up the passengers at their departure location. As the sale of empty leg positioning flights became more common place, customers benefited from lower prices and operators benefited from increased efficiency and profits. The race towards efficiency began.
