Corporate Aviation Management

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Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………

Air travel is one of the most important technological advancement of human civilization. Air

travel allowed billion of people of this planet to connect and explore each other’s civilizations

with much ease and comfort. Today more than 4 billion people travel by plane every year and the

world air traffic is increasing every day. In the early days of aviation air travel was restricted to

the use of specific people of high financial or political leverages. However, with the flow of time

and technology, this luxury became a common good. Today people from all forms of life travel

from airlines to reach their required destination. This increase in traffic flow required the

creation of proper aviation industry to regularize and operate flying procedures. Civil aviation

networks developed in every country to ensure the smooth and safe conduct of flight operations.

In the current era, civil aviation plays an important part in managing flights, airports, and

operations of international air travel. However, in post world war two era, many business owners

and capitalist kingpins started to prefer charted plane services over commercial airliners. This

change of preference resulted in the creation of a separate air travel industry for corporate and

big businesses. Many organizations moved from charting commercial planes to buying their

aircraft to reduce costs and increase sustainability. Today, around 11000 businesses use non-

commercial aircraft to transport their personnel and goods (NBAA, 2019). This resulted in the

creation of a new aviation category in civil aviation by the name of corporate aviation. Though

the primary responsibility remains the same for both services, corporate aviation emerged

differently from general aviation due to its less passenger load and schedule flexibilities. This

paper aims to talk about the management of corporate aviation. This paper will try to explore the

industry through the lens of an outsider and will thoroughly discuss the details of the industry’s

procedures and functions. This paper will include a description of the industry’s operations,
management, and human resource management. The paper will also explore the regulations and

safety concerns regarding corporate aviation. The primary aim of the paper will remain to

present maximum information about the industry through literature and conventions available

about the corporate aviation industry,

Description of Corporate Aviation Management:

As mentioned earlier, the increasing costs of commercial travel created an opportunity for

aircraft companies to look business concerns as valuable clients. New aircrafts that were smaller

in sizes and more fuel efficient were introduced for corporate ownership. For corporate

leadership maintaining their own aircrafts or linking themselves with a corporate aviation firm

was a highly beneficiary option. Corporate air travel allows business professionals and corporate

representatives to reach their desired location at any given time by avoiding the regular time

consuming procedures of commercial airlines. These aircraft facilities were also beneficial in

cases where corporate leaders have to visit far off areas where no direct flight routes are

available. This also helped corporations in creating their own schedules according to their

business concerns and travel as it suits their schedule rather than following a commercial

airline’s fixed schedule. Presently Corporate Aviation adds up to 150 Billion $ in US economy

and is considered an industry of more than 350 Billion$ worldwide. The Corporate Aviation also

employee 2.4 Million people globally, half of which serves in USA (NBAA, 2019). The number

of business attached with corporate air travel crossed the 11000 mark in 2019 and is increasing

every day. Interestingly more than half of Business that uses corporate flying facilities is small

businesses with less than 500 employees, while only 3% of fortune 500 maintains their own fleet
(NBAA, 2019). This means that the costs of Corporate travel is far less than previously assumed

and is helping many mid sixe businesses to grow further in future.

Operation description 

Aviation management is a task that is often beyond the scope of a corporation. The technicality

of the flight operations and maintenance of safety standards require businesses to acquire

assistance for the operation of corporate management. Since more and more businesses are

entering in corporate aviation, multiple delivery systems are now in place to ensure the smooth

operation of their aircraft. One of these systems is on-demand aviation where corporate does not

own or maintain the aircraft but rather hire professional corporate aviation firms that provide

these services on the client’s requirement. This option is the most common form of corporate

aviation and is highly preferred by businesses that do not require frequent travel and cannot

manage a private plane. Multiple airlines run separate corporate units that deals with business

aviation. Many smaller airlines that just deal with corporate clients are also in market. The

second operating system is the creation and maintenance of in house flight department. Big

corporations buy out their airplanes and create a whole department that assists in running

aviation operations of their flight operations. Usually, this department is staffed with technical

personnel from commercial airliners and is headed by experienced managers. Thirdly many

companies share their planes with other full-time aviation corporations while the plane is owned

and is accessible only to a specific corporation, the aviation form looks after its maintenance and

operations and flight technicalities. They hire pilots and staff and ensure the availability of

planes on the need of the corporation. 

Aircrafts 

Unlike commercial airlines where larger planes ensure more profits, corporate aviation favors

small aircraft because of its lower passenger load. The most common aircraft used in the industry

is a single-engine, piston-powered plane that can carry up to 6 people. These planes are easier to

manage and can reduce fuel costs. It is considered ideal for small trips that are less than five

hundred miles. Another important feature of this plane is its small runway requirements as most

corporate usage forces them to land planes on less developed airports. A small piston plane can

safely land on a 2500 feet runway while a commercial plane needs at least 6000 feet to land. 

The next important plane is the single-engine turboprop plane. It is more expensive than the

piston-powered one but provides additional benefits in terms of passenger load and

compatibility. Many corporate-run this plane to fly off their employees to relatively too far of

locations. This plane requires a professional maintained crew and trained pilots. They can fly up

to 900 miles with up to 6-8 passengers on board. Much larger corporate also use a two-engine

variant of turboprop plane to increase performance. These planes can fly up to 1500 miles

without taking a stop (Castro, 2012) 

The next plane is two engine midsized cabin turbojets. These planes are expensive to buy and to

maintain and are seldom used by small corporate. This plane can fly long distances with

comparatively larger passenger loads. Around 17% of NBAA members use small jets while 19%

use turboprop, rest uses larger planes, or smaller piston planes (NBAA, 2019). Multiple

companies also have fleets of helicopters to facilitate interstate travel for employees and

corporate leaders.
Human resource 

Human resource management is a highly important part of aviation management. Considering

the risks involved in flight operations, all recruitment processes are done after careful

observation of qualifications and certifications of staff. Whether the corporate aviation

operations are managed in house or are provided by another aviation company, standard

requirements of personnel issued by the Federal Aviation Authority are strictly followed.

Usually, more advanced skill sets are required for Corporate Aviation as compared to other

commercial airliners. Due to the high profitability and funding of the industry both Pilots and

technical staffs are provided with better training and pay scales. An average corporate pilot earns

20-45% more than a regular commercial pilot with almost the same flight hours (Sheehan,

2003) . The specific qualifications and certifications of recruits vary from task to task and depend

on their nature of operations. All staff members required to have necessary degrees as

established by FAA and training certifications ion flight operations of small aircraft. A standard

requirement for a corporate pilot includes ATP certificate with high ratings, Minimum 3500

flight hours along with 700 hours in the specific plane that is used by the corporation, Medical

and physical fitness, trained in aircraft instrument checking, and have logged at least five

hindered hours on turbine-powered planes. Similarly, the first officer is also required to have

basic certifications issued by ATP, 1500 hours of flight operations along with necessary

experience in small aircraft.

Professional and qualifies managers are hired to manage on-ground flight operations and general

administrations (Castro, 2012). In most practices, individuals with at least 5-10 years of

experience are hired to ensure complete safety of operations. Most corporate aviation

departments are staffed with fewer people but a specific limit is set on the minimum amount of
people per plane. A typical human resource in corporate management includes technical and

maintenance staff, Cabin crew and operation, or administrative staff. Like pilots Technical and

maintenance staff is also hired after confirming with the guidelines issued by the FAA. These

staff members are checked on their qualifications and must ensure significant value in terms of

their experience in aviation and with small aircraft.

Manager’s role and Responsibility

Managers are a key factor in Corporate Aviation. Managing such a daunting task where the cost

of a disaster is in human lives is a highly important task. Management of Aviation requires

extreme levels of technical and administrative experience. Almost all mangers that are hired by

corporate have served previously for multiple commercial airliners. The Manager role in this

industry is divided into three parts: Planning, Execution, and general administration (Cannon and

Ritche, 2012). He or she has to plan out the operational procedure of every flight. This process

includes permissions and permits taken from various aviation authorities, charters from airports,

and other requirements. The planning phase also includes the complete layout of security

procedures for every flight. Managers have to constantly work with their team to ensure that the

clients have a smooth and safe flight. This lead to the second part of the task: the flight itself.

Since the corporate aviation industry is small, managers have to overlook almost every flight to

ensure a better experience than commercial airliners. Pilots and staff crew members have to be

checked and must be adjusted from the pool depending on rest hours and availability, flight

maintenance and necessary checks have also been a part of the execution. Lastly and most

importantly, a corporate manager has to overlook the general working of the flight operations.

He had to ensure that all the staff members are recruited with due care and carry necessary
certifications. He is also responsible for flight safety operations and maintenance checks. As a

management head, any damage to life or property is his responsibility so he had to go through all

the necessary details to ensure that the flight is safe and secure and all maintenance has been

completed before it can take off. Though managers are paid high in this industry they have a lot

of work and are generally understaffed. This means that they have to go beyond means to ensure

the requirement is fulfilled.

Regulations and Laws

Laws and regulations are an important part of aviation. Corporate aviation flights have to go

through the same process as any other commercial or non commercial flights. All planes and

crew members must have to be cleared by respected department of country’s civil aviation

division. In America these regulations are made by FAA (Federal Aviation Authority). FAA

laws are divided into common carriages (commercial) and non common carriages (personal)

categories. Usually Corporate flights are treated under Para 91 of FAA law that puts it under non

common carriage (Gleimer, 1996). The safety standards and maintenance procedures though

remain almost same as any other commercial airlines. All corporate planes have to be checked

for maintenance after a specific time, flight hours had to include safety check breaks and pilots

are not allowed to fly beyond a certain limit. These laws and regulations are all followed by

National Business Aviation and the group ensures that are flights are in compatibility of these

laws.
Safety and security

One of the major concerns of companies operating private aircraft is to ensure that all

flight operations are completely safe and secure. To accomplish this Task certain systematic

operational; procedures (SOP’s) are kept in place by all corporate aviation managers. One of

these procedural requirements is the use of the Safety Management System (SMS). This system

enables aviation managers to locate and manage risks proactively. The standards issued by ICAO

(International Civil aviation organization) also recommend SMS in non-commercial flight

operations. Furthermore, International Business Aviation itself has designed standards for

Business aircraft operations (IS-BAO) to ensure further compliances with FAA and ICAO

standards (Castro, 2012). Some prominent procedures of Corporate SMS routine include regular

safety checks, quarterly maintenance of aircraft and strict regulations for flight hours, and flight

crew management. It is because of these quality procedures that the accident rate is far lower in

corporate aviation as compared to regular airlines. In the year 2012 airliners experienced 2.4

accidents per million flight hours while corporate flights experienced only 1.1 (Donne, 2012).

Many corporate aircraft managers use more strict safety procedures as compared to normal

airlines because their goal is focused on increasing the safety of employees and corporate leaders

rather than on increasing flight revenue. The number of flight hours of plane and pilots re

minimized and technicians are given more advanced technology to create a more safe

environment in Corporate run planes. Pilots re provided with strict training through corporate

maintained stimulations. In 2016 around 1100 corporate pilots received recognition on their 2000

accident-free hours (NBAA, 2017)

 However, as in commercial aviation safety procedures do not end with the establishment of

flight regulations but also involve measures on the ground that can counter any terrorist activity.

In the post 9/11 world, both commercial and corporate aviation is improving their mechanism to

ensure that their aircraft remain safe and secure. Incorporate business management, multiple

layers of security is used. Airport watch program initiated by international business aviation link

pilots with TSA operational staff and allow reporting any suspicious activity on planes. Many

big corporate also include security details in their flights to ensure the complete safety of

passengers. Rules and regulations issued by FAA are strictly followed throughout the industry

and screening and background checks of suspicious passengers and crew members are part of the

operational routine.

Conclusion:

Corporate Aviation Industry is an important part of international air travel. Though to some, it

may look like a luxury but in reality, it provides billions of dollars in savings to corporations in

terms of travel costs. The flexibility of scheduling and transiting as per the requirement of the

client makes corporate business management a great service for all businesses. In the present

world where time is the key to success, any precious amount of this luxury that is wasted in

commercial flights is a big loss for bog corporations. Interestingly many small businesses also

prefer corporate travel because of the considerable flexibility attached to it. In recent years many

nonprofit organizations such as universities, missions, and hospitals have started to use their

planes to increase the mobility of their employees and also to decrease their costs on commercial

flights. The safety and security of these corporate flights are also considered highly advanced

and many have shown better performance as compared to their commercial counterparts. These
facts prove that corporate aviation is the future of air travel in the first world and will continue to

expand in the coming years. All projections show that the industry is likely to develop into a

more larger part of general aviation and might surpass it in terms of Revenue generation (Horsch,

2008).
References

Castro, R. (2012). Corporate aviation management. SIU Press.

Sheehan, J. J. (2003). Business and Corporate Aviation Management: On-Demand Air

Transportation.

Cannon, J. R., & Richey, F. D. (2012). Practical Applications in Business Aviation Management.

Government Institutes.

Donne, M. (2002). The outlook for international corporate aviation. Travel & Tourism Analyst,

(3), 3-21.

Hosch, R. (2008). The Role of Business Aviation in the European Civil Aviation Market.

In Trends and Issues in Global Tourism 2008 (pp. 43-46). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Gleimer, E. M. (1996). Corporate Aircraft Operations: The Twilight Zone of Regulation. J. Air

L. & Com., 62, 987

Barden, S. (2018). Corporate Aviation vs. Airlines: Two Pilots Weigh In. Retrieved July 24,

2020, from Aviation Personnel International website:

https://www.apiaviation.com/corporate-aviation-vs-airlines/#sthash.3QxsuI0H.dpbs

‌National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), 2019. Fast fact book, retrieved from

https://nbaa.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/business-aviation-fact-book.pdf