Tuesday AM October 26th, 2010

Par Avion is run by Janine Iannarelli, who has more than 25 years in the sale and purchase of business aircraft. Aircraft sales are more than procurement. There are interactions with manufacturers, maintenance facilities and completion centers. It starts with assessing the needs of the customer.

“Then we try to get down to what is the most important attribute to them. Is it range? Are they looking to travel to a specific destination and if so, how frequent? What size cabin are they after? How many passengers do they anticipate they would be carrying on a routine basis? The majority of people who approach us for assistance already know what they’re after or at least have a category of an aircraft in mind.”

The aviation industry has been trending toward lighter, more fuel-efficient aircraft. But those who want to own and operate their own private jet — Elvis Presley-style — have to consider several things.

“You need to employ crew members—at least two pilots for the majority of the aircraft operating today. In some cases you may as well hire a third-party technician. There’s going to be hanger rent involved, fuel costs, insurance, scheduled maintenance — and maintenance on aircraft occurs regardless of whether you fly the airplane or not because it’s dictated by calendar as well as an hourly occurrence. There are other incidentals that are involved at setting up the operation, but those are the primary expenses that one would encounter.” 

The aviation business is struggling, like other industries, with the slow economy. Iannarelli says we’re still on a long, slow crawl from a very deep trough.