Air-travel used to be a fun, exciting experience! What happened and how can we get that feeling back?
23 May 2019
Travelling is meant to be fun and enjoyable (even on a business trip) but over the past few years factors have combined to make it much less so than it was. In a way air travel has become a victim of its own success in that as it has become more accessible to a greater number of people, so prices have fallen. But in tandem with this standards of service have also fallen dramatically often making air travel downright painful.
Queues, queues and more queues!
Not only does it take considerably more time than it used to but it is no longer that pleasurable or convenient. Nowadays to even fly to Europe means being at the airport some hours ahead of the flight time simply to get checked in and through the interminable queues at security. And doing this, as many of us will be doing over the Summer, with young children is actually akin to torture!
So what can we do to take some of the pain out of air travel and once again make it even marginally pleasurable?
Well we could think about hiring a private plane for our family holiday. But before I hear shreaks of horror and disbelief from the assembled company, let me assure you that in reality it is not as expensive as you might think! And who knows, it might even save us from some of the inevitable extra bureaucracy that our exit from the European Union may bring!
In the same way as events have combined to make commercial air travel a horrible experience, so too have other events combined to make private air travel all the more accessible to us all.
Firstly in 2017 the authorities approved the use of single engine prop planes in all European member countries. This might not seem particularly important but what it means is that smaller, lower cost and more flexible aircraft can now be hired privately.
And the fact that the planes are smaller and more flexible means that they can use some of the smaller more accessible local airports and airstrips that would have previously been unusable by the bigger aircraft. At these airstrips, not only are the landing and parking fees significantly cheaper but refuelling can often cost less too!
Dry hiring makes potentially even more cost effective!
It is also possible to hire an aircraft without a pilot or fuel which puts you and the pilot you choose and hire in the driving seat – you are jointly able to decide where to leave from, where to land and where to re-fuel! This can make a significant difference to the cost! This method of hiring a plane is called Dry hiring and is becoming increasingly popular.
It is time to bring back the fun and excitement to travelling!
It is time we turned back the clock and made air travel an enjoyable experience once again. There are some top quality commercial airlines that offer a wonderful flying experience in first and business class but this too is expensive and you still have to endure long waits to get through the airport. If you want to avoid all that hassle and enjoy a first class flying experience, isn’t it time you tried dry hiring a private aircraft? Your family will love you for it and they certainly won’t forget it!