Fractional ownership. An invitation to save the earth?
Unless you’re Madonna, the Prince of Wales or one of the other 3,000 counted worthy, you didn’t receive an invitation to join the Flightshare Private Members Guild.
Don’t feel bad. I didn’t get an invitation either. So what is the Flightshare Private Members Guild? It’s basically carpooling for the rich and famous, except with jets instead of cars. It’s the brainchild of David Lacy, an aviation veteran who is best known for his efforts to minimize the impact of plane travel on the environment. He was the first to introduce carbon offsets to the European private jet industry last year.
The concept of Flightshare was sparked by the revelation that the world’s private jets fly empty 40% of the time.
From an article I read on the subject:
Last year, in Europe alone, there were 710,000 private flights. An estimated 250,000 of these were simply positioning flights with none of the seats occupied and of the remainder, most of these flew with a number of seats empty.
Well, I don’t know all the details (I didn’t get an invitation…remember), but membership in this program “enables the sharing of private jet flights through access to the Guild’s secure portal and private coordination service.”
Is it just me, or does this sound a lot like fractional ownership? In fact, not paying for empty legs is something that’s always touted by fractional providers, but I’ve never seen it mentioned that you’re saving polar bears as well as cash.
Which got me thinking. With global warming and the environment being the hot topic (excuse the pun) right now and many people genuinely concerned and wanting to make a difference, maybe the fractional ownership industry should be positioning themselves as the “green” choice of private jet travel.
I realize that might sound like a tobacco company positioning their product as the safer way to a nicotine fix, but if the creation of this Guild is any indication at all, than this could be a very effective way of marketing fractional ownership.
Or maybe not. First we’ll have to see if Madonna and company accept the invitation.
