Please keep us posted. On the surface the price seems too good to be true so I’m assuming that you pay for the whole day?

I took a look at the JetIT model. For the lowest tier, it is $630k for acquisition and includes 25 days per year at $1,600/hour and $4,500/month. Residual is guaranteed at 44% after 5 years.

For my use, it would be about the same cost as owning a CJ. I've been evaluating a step up from my E55 to increse business travel use. For 38k nm per year, here is what I see:

The above model includes Fuel (or per hour for JetIT), 4% cost of capital, hangar (except JetIT), insurance, training, CA property tax, estimated maintenance, engine cost (or program for CJ, zero for JetIT), acquisition, depriciation, sale after 5 years (with recapture tax at sale), 65% business use and associated tax impacts (a -24% to -32% discount depending on a/c), and SIFL. I have owned the Baron for 5 years so I have a good handle on those costs, but the rest are estimates based on lurking on BT. YMMV

I may make the jump to turbine, but probably the low end. If my budget was ready for the CJ, despite already having the 525s type rating I would take a hard look at the JetIT program.

Here is how the JetIT rep explained the days versus hours usage.

"Your assumption on the Jet It model is spot on. You can take a one week business trip and use two days to complete (one day out/one day return). For example, if we take you out on a Monday and drop you off at your final destination for that day, the aircraft is then repositioned for the next mission/owner flight. You only get billed for the occupied hours flown that day. Once your business trip is completed, let’s say Friday of that same week, the aircraft is repositioned to you anywhere in the country to bring you back home to SNA. Once we drop you off at SNA, the aircraft is flown to its next mission on the schedule. Just like the outbound flight earlier in the week, you’re billed for the occupied time it took to bring you home."

With 25 days, I think I could accomplish the 38k nm of travel I have planned for a typical year. But it would be 4x the E55 and 2x entry turboprops (or perhaps the 501SP).

Someone at FXE told me that they have sold 6 of those already this year (that's through Banyan aircraft sales)...........

The Jetit model/pricing is probably the most attractive I've seen. Being able to fly is a big plus.

Justin, for what it's worth, your PA46T costs are spot on with what I've experienced for my 2006 Meridian (approx. $950K acquisition cost).

What assumption did you make on the CJ acquisition cost? Any CJ operators care to opine on the Justin's CJ numbers?

I can see the allure of the JetIt program. Honda was in my thoughts before I headed to Piaggio. The Jet-4 program matches my use/expense/investment pretty closely.

I estimate my all-in hourly costs, including depreciation, will be less than $1600/hr. So I save the JetIt management fee and depreciation costs. On the + side I don't have to share and can do what I want. On the - side, I get to manage the plane (which I kind of like), issues, etc.

I'd really like to see Jet-It work...just doesn't feel like many of these type programs survive long term.

And you get to do the flying. I've looked at several of these programs, mostly because I don't want to be stupid with money. But, as long as I can sit in the uncomfortable seats up front, I'll never do it. Some might argue to get the flying jones taken care of with a piston plane for short, personal trips and use a program like this in addition. I looked at that too. But I want to sit up front. And the reward of working hard is to get to do what you want!

What did you think, Chip? Interesting program on paper for sure.

Any chance you could attach the actual excel file? Would love to drop in a few we've been considering and see if your math matches ours...

'
Chip,

Watched the video.
I would be highly skeptical of any firm that uses an ad in which a grown man wears brown shoes with a blue suit. Questionable at best.

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Chip,

Watched the video.
I would be highly skeptical of any firm that uses an ad in which a grown man wears brown shoes with a blue suit. Questionable at best.

I'm far from fashionable, but I hear you. It did stand out to me when I first started seeing it. It seems to have started with the slimmer Euro-fit style suits with pant leg lengths we used to call "floods" (as in, "your pants are so short they'd stay dry in a flood").

That being said - the suit tends to be a lighter-than-navy blue and the brown shoes seem to be more of an orange-brown in color; thus opposite sides of the color wheel, i.e., complementary.

So, I guess it's a thing now.

I took a very hard look at Jet-It. If you run the numbers as I did, much of the program is very reasonable. I was considering a Jet-20 interest. A few items of interest - first, they are the only fractional that allows you to fly. On the plus side, once you complete the training, YOU ARE COVERED UNDER THEIR INSURANCE. Which is a big deal for owner-flown turbine folks. Plus, you are only paying the hourly rate for live legs, not for dead heads or repositioning flights (in the lower 48 and Canada - that's not the case for Mexico and the Caribbean, where you do pay to reposition the jet to a nearby US airport). So the hourly cost and monthly fees aren't exorbitant and for those of us "of a certain age," the notion of flying a jet with crew isn't all bad. And you get to fly a new airplane with fantastic avionics and 400-knot-plus cruise speeds, with a great cabin for the family and friends.

Having said all that, the aircraft get a lot of hours put on them. Jet-It plans to fly them until about 10,000 hours on the Hobbs and they are flying a lot. Much more flying on a plane than an owner would fly their turbine. Of course, the company is also paying for all the maintenance that comes out of your payments. But that's why the buyback levels are so low.

After 3 years, if you exit, you get 50% of your investment back. After 5 years, 44%. Or, you can roll over to a new five-year contract with no additional capital payment but your maintenance fee is no longer locked it and can go up (presumably to reflect the increased MX cost for the second 5000 hours on the airframe). Not clear what, if anything, you get back after 10 years if you stay that long.

But a 50% depreciation hit after only 3 years (or 56% after 5 years) is pretty serious. On the Jet-20 program, that's $625000 in depreciation losses. Assuming you fly the jet 100 hours per year (which would be a lot for something like this), that brings your total cost including the hourly rate, plus 60 months of the fee, plus the depreciation cost, plus the $38000 initial FS school and recurrent training intervals. That comes out, over 5 years, to a total spend of approximately $1.86 million. Over 3 years, it comes to approximately $1.321 million. Or a total hourly cost of $3720 and $4400, respectively. I didn't have a business case, so that's all after-tax money. I probably messed up the math somewhere but you get the picture.

If you were to buy a Mustang or a CJ (and add winglets, new avionics), you'd be looking at a plane in the $1.4-1.7 range all in. Three or 5 years of flying that airplane (even if you had to buy your own insurance) would not likely cost that much, in part because depreciation on those aircraft would not likely be as severe (assuming 300 or 500 total additional hours, and that they were on programs like the HondaJet's are, to make it apples to apples). That's a big pill to swallow.

I think Jet-It is a good program for what you get, if you don't mind the spend. But for me, heading into retirement, those kind of numbers are hard to justify. It would be much cheaper for me to charter occasionally and ride in the back a few times a year and fly my slower M600 turboprop (or the DA62 that I recently ordered which consumes 16-18 gallons of jet fuel per hour!) when I want to be PIC.

But that's just one pilot's opinion ...

Cheers

PS - you mean my shoes are supposed to match my clothes?? Well that explains a lot ... ha ha

I’m not sure a Mustang or CJ is comparable to a HJ elite S. But an M2 might be and I wouldn’t be surprised if a used M2 purchased today depreciated $600k over five years. Plus buying the M2 would have a higher cost of capital. I recognize it’s apples to oranges but since you only own 1/5 of the plane, you only eat 1/5 of the depreciation.

$38k for a HJ type rating? Yikes!

I agree, Paul - comparing new to used is always a bit misleading. But those are my actual options - buying a 1/5 share of a new jet via this program, or buying a used jet. Because I can't afford to buy 100% of an M2 (or even a HondaJet). So I'm looking at the bottom line $$ of cash expense over a three or 5-year period.

And, I agree that a new jet like an M2 might depreciate 600k over that period of time, but as a 1/5 owner in the Jet-It program, I'm experiencing 700k of depreciation for 1/5 of a jet over 5 years. The M2 would not depreciate 3.5 mm over that time period, so it's still a very expensive proposition on a net basis.