Time bandits

Mike McCracken, the founder of Hawkeye Aircraft Acquisitions, has been selling aircraft for 37 years and still loves it. But he is trying to change the few things that get him very angry.

One of his biggest frustrations is how the industry does not accurately measure the advantage of flying by corporate aircraft. “It is crazy. We all talk a good game but we do not have a metric to show potential customers. As the saying goes, you cannot manage what you cannot measure.”

Rather than just complaining, he has developed a simple system allowing flight departments to calculate the time and productivity savings that are available using a business jet. Users input where they are flying, the salaries of the passengers and the price of comparable commercial flights. Using productivity multipliers, calculated from NBAA backed research, it then shows the difference between commercial and private flights.

“I doubt that there are more than a handful of flight departments in the world that calculate the productivity factor of flying privately.” says McCracken. “The results show the advantage that we all talk about. This is a metric that people flying on business jets, looking to buy a share or whole aircraft need to know.”

“We are seeing flight departments being cut back and companies being pushed to cut aircraft, particularly because of activist investors – who pretty much all have their own shares or aircraft,” says McCracken. “I really believe we need to show them hard numbers proving the value that you get from having staff fly on a business aircraft.”

Something else that gets him really angry is business jet manufacturer CEOs flying on airlines to sell jets. “It is a disconnect. It sends completely the wrong message to a buyer when the CEO of the company building the aircraft has flown there on an airline. It does not make sense.”

CEOs can calculate the productivity advantage of flying privately here