An emergency arose with a customer about an hour west of Houston and we needed to have 2 people with replacement parts there on the same day. From Dallas we could drive for 7 hours or we could take Southwest Airlines. There are flights leaving all the time between these 2 cities, so scheduling is not difficult. However, the 40 minute flight ends up taking 4 hours:
- 1 hour drive to Love Field
- 1 hour early arrival for security and seating
- 40 minute flight
- 20 minutes to get a rental car
- 1 hour drive to the customer site
An to top it all off, it would be $130 per person each way - or a grand total of $520!
With a 4 seat airplane the flight time was longer, but the door to door time was much better:
- 15 minute drive to the airport
- 15 minutes to preflight the plane
- 105 minute flight
- 10 minutes to park
- 10 minutes for a rental
- 15 minute drive to the customer
Grand total: 2 hours and 50 minutes!
On top of that the total fuel burned was only 33 gallons, for a flight cost of $132.
Obviously this type of travel is not typical for many business, but if your company has a lot of last minute travel, or travel outside of the major cities the cost and time savings can be real.
Clear skies and tailwinds!
Mike
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