The new Corporate Membership Program from Magellan Jets promises to please one particular member of a company’s C-suite, even if he or she doesn’t take a single flight aboard a business jet provided through the program. “This is a CFO’s dream aviation solution,” says Anthony Tivnan, the president of Magellan Jets, a membership and on-demand charter company based just outside Boston.
Tivnan notes how it can be difficult for a company to establish and adhere to an aviation budget because of the variable costs associated with aircraft chartering, full ownership, or fractional ownership. With the Magellan program, a company pays no premium charges for flying on peak days and no fuel surcharges, and catering is included in the membership price. “If the membership is for, say, $850,000, that’s what’s you’ll pay,” says Tivnan. “You’ll be able to set a budget without adding a lot of incidental costs.”
The program is designed for companies that fly frequently. Corporate members are required to purchase an annual minimum of 100 flight hours. (A Magellan personal membership starts at 25 hours per year.) The price of the corporate membership depends on the size of the aircraft, as well as the number of flight hours. Magellan offers access to a wide variety of business jets, from light to ultralong range, all of which have been vetted by a safety-auditing service such as Wyvern or ARGUS.
In addition to eliminating peak-day fees and fuel surcharges, Magellan’s program guarantees that aircraft are available to corporate members with notice just six hours in advance, that Wi-Fi is available on all midsize and larger jets, and that each aircraft is 10 years old or newer.
Tivnan says the program was developed through feedback from companies that own or owned aircraft, companies that own fractional shares, and its own corporate companies. He notes how the corporate membership program allows a company to be much more financially nimble than it would be if it owned an aircraft or fractional shares, because a member can change its number of flight hours from year to year, and it can add hours during the year if it exceeds the number that it purchased. The latter action might not fly with a CFO, but, Tivnan reiterates, the program itself should. “It makes the CFO’s job much easier,” he says, “because there’s a lot more predictability in terms of aviation expenses.”
