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vkhosid

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Hello all,

I have a question for those that know more about this than I do (which should be pretty much all of you). My in-laws live in Chapel Hill, and my wife and I are by Teterboro. The in-laws would like to visit, but driving up is a bit of a pain for them at their age. They're hesitant to fly commercial because of some pending health issues. I was trying to look into private charter flights for them, but all i'm seeing is something like 12k for round trip.

If that's accurate and those are prices that we can expect, that's fine. But I just wanted to make sure I'm looking at/for/in the correct places.

Any help/suggestions you guys might have, I'd gladly follow up on.

Thanks!
 
Might try calling the local airport FBO and/or flight school and asking if anyone local does charters.

I am just guessing the ones you are seeing is quoting business jet prices.
 
Zeldman said:
Might try calling the local airport FBO and/or flight school and asking if anyone local does charters.

I am just guessing the ones you are seeing is quoting business jet prices.
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That they are....with a layover in Charlotte, no less...
 
Not sure how far it is from Chapel Hill to Telerboro is. Depending on the plane the price could very a lot.
 
Since there is no airport in Chapel Hill, where is the charter actually coming from? Charter flights don't "layover". Where exactly did you go looking for this charter?

I know a little bit about this stuff, I would be happy to help you with this off line if you would like.
 
That is short enough range, that if comfort is not king, look for a piston plane to do the charter.
Should be in range for many of them, and would be much cheaper jet.

Tim
 
Obviously the state matters. Guessing this is Chapel Hill NC you are referring to? A charter out of RDU (Raleigh-Durham) would be the way to go. Minimum 2.4 hours (maybe more) roundtrip times charter rate would give you a ball park, then up from there for fees, taxes, overnights, high density airport ops, etc. Not looking at rates now but say it’s $3000/hour At the lowest end, then it can easily surpass $8000 or $9000 minimum. If airplane has to reposition to/from RDU then it goes up from there. Again, don’t know the rates you’ll be dealing with. I would start out by contacting an FBO or charter operator out of RDU.
 
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Have the in-laws buy a plane, then hire a now furloughed airline guy to fly them back and forth.
 
It’s only 372NM ....KRDU to KTEB....very doable...fly down, pick them up and fly back.
Im assume OP is a pilot.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
It’s only 372NM ....KRDU to KTEB....very doable...fly down, pick them up and fly back.
Im assume OP is a pilot.
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OP is a pilot....but out of medical and no IR (not to mention, no plane)....so, no flying for me for now.

But, in the past when they've traveled here, they would go RDU to EWR.

Groundpounder said:
Since there is no airport in Chapel Hill, where is the charter actually coming from? Charter flights don't "layover". Where exactly did you go looking for this charter?

I know a little bit about this stuff, I would be happy to help you with this off line if you would like.
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Would be more than happy to chat offline or via DM. My main question right now is what's a ballpark number for the trip. If its in the mid to high thousands, then i'm sure they'd rather just drive and split it up into two days. If the flight can be made for about the cost of a coast to coast first class ticket, then that's a different story.
 
vkhosid said:
I was trying to look into private charter flights for them, but all i'm seeing is something like 12k for round trip.
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That must be the introductory rate. You should book 5 in advance to keep that rate. It's a bargain.
 
Brad Z said:
For reference, A charter PA-32 is about $2,500 one way from the Outer Banks to Teterboro.
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I guess if he doesn't like his in-laws that would be an option.


(oh, btw, it's a joke)
 
I used to field inquiries like this all the time when I flew charters.Almost invariably, the caller thought that a small airplane would be cheaper than an airline ticket. They did not take into account the fact that scheduled airline trips have passengers at both the departure and the destination cities so that the airline makes money either way; the little airplane pilot must cover the cost of a round trip unless the putative passenger plans on covering the pilots costs (food, lodging) for a layover. The airline also has the advantage of scale...its fleet consists of many airplanes so that a loss on one flight will be mitigated by the profits on several flights, while a charter outfit has a much smaller fleet (one plane?) and every trip must cover its direct costs plus enough profit to keep the lights on and the door open.
 
vkhosid said:
OP is a pilot....but out of medical and no IR (not to mention, no plane)....so, no flying for me for now.

But, in the past when they've traveled here, they would go RDU to EWR.


Would be more than happy to chat offline or via DM. My main question right now is what's a ballpark number for the trip. If its in the mid to high thousands, then i'm sure they'd rather just drive and split it up into two days. If the flight can be made for about the cost of a coast to coast first class ticket, then that's a different story.
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If they want to take something with turbines, I would say 8k-10k round trip would probably realistic.
 
vkhosid said:
My main question right now is what's a ballpark number for the trip.
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The number I tossed at you is a ballpark number for a light jet.

vkhosid said:
If the flight can be made for about the cost of a coast to coast first class ticket, then that's a different story.
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I don’t think that’s going to happen unless your lucky and it’s putting them on the smallest GA airplane on a charter certificate. Heck I don’t think a chartered Cessna 182 could do it for less than a coast to coast first class ticket. You’d definitely have in-law problems if you don’t already.
 
Hahaha...I appreciate the feedback, guys. Looks like they'll be driving.
 
vkhosid said:
OP is a pilot....but out of medical and no IR (not to mention, no plane)....so, no flying for me for now.
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Are you Basic Med legal? Using my airplane's performance numbers, it'd be 2:45 each way and about 75 gallons of gas round trip. You could knock that down a good bit in something like a Bonanza, assuming this would be a regularly occurring trip.
 
bobmrg said:
I used to field inquiries like this all the time when I flew charters.Almost invariably, the caller thought that a small airplane would be cheaper than an airline ticket. They did not take into account the fact that scheduled airline trips have passengers at both the departure and the destination cities so that the airline makes money either way; the little airplane pilot must cover the cost of a round trip unless the putative passenger plans on covering the pilots costs (food, lodging) for a layover. The airline also has the advantage of scale...its fleet consists of many airplanes so that a loss on one flight will be mitigated by the profits on several flights, while a charter outfit has a much smaller fleet (one plane?) and every trip must cover its direct costs plus enough profit to keep the lights on and the door open.
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This used to happen to a friend of mine on a regular basis when he had the charter companies phones transferred to his home after hours. The worst were the drunks after midnight wanting to go to Vegas. I think he used to tell them something like $10,000 for the flight. They weren't serious about the flight so it was no real loss.
 
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Since you're talking "in laws" find some old 310 with a camera hole.
 
ktup-flyer said:
Are you Basic Med legal? Using my airplane's performance numbers, it'd be 2:45 each way and about 75 gallons of gas round trip. You could knock that down a good bit in something like a Bonanza, assuming this would be a regularly occurring trip.
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That’s what I was thinking, and for such a short trip with flexible schedule could be done VFR easily. It’s what small planes were made for .
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
That’s what I was thinking, and for such a short trip with flexible schedule could be done VFR easily. It’s what small planes were made for .
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I have a Bo and I regularly make the trip from KILM to KISP...IFR, 470nm - that’s usually a little under 3 hours and 50 gallons of 100LL. Funny, it seems like a bargain - between gas, tolls and a snack stop or two, the drive always ends up costing more (not including maintenance and fixed costs, of course).
 
Son in Law recently flew from Teterboro to West Palm for $600+, on a Citation. It was a charter of some sort, with open seats. I’ll ask him what site he found it on.
 
C-1 PILOT said:
Son in Law recently flew from Teterboro to West Palm for $600+, on a Citation. It was a charter of some sort, with open seats. I’ll ask him what site he found it on.
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If that's the case, that'd be awesome!
 
C-1 PILOT said:
Son in Law recently flew from Teterboro to West Palm for $600+, on a Citation. It was a charter of some sort, with open seats. I’ll ask him what site he found it on.
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Sounds like JetSmarter. Doubt they fly between RDU and TEB.
 
I thought that layover in CLT was when you were looking up airline flights. I wouldn’t depend on google to search charter flights for you.
 
Kelvin said:
Amtrak?
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Taking Amtrak between Durham and Newark, NJ is high on our "travel mistakes not to be repeated" list. Between NY and DC, train beats car. Between DC and NC, car is significantly faster. Enough to make the whole trip faster by car, and not by a small margin. I recall the train running through some small towns at about walking pace.
 
Groundpounder said:
If you're going to actually charter an airplane, call a broker, don't rely on Google.
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As a charter pilot, I loathe most brokers. Almost without exception, they're an interruption in the communication process and do little more than make some calls and send some emails to take their cut off the top. Call the operator directly!
 
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