Beverly air taxi firm filling a travel niche
For Peter Gavin, business travel was always a nightmare. His flights on commercial airliners often landed at major airports nowhere near his destination. He found himself driving through the backwoods of Tennessee and the Carolinas to destinations as many as five hours from the airport. The extra driving and gas costs were beginning to make visiting his customers an exhausting and expensive chore.
''I realized I could do more business if I could facilitate my time better," said Gavin, president of Polylok Inc., a water and drainage product manufacturer in Wallingford, Conn.
To save time and money, Gavin turned to the NxAERO charter company in Beverly, which flies one of the most fuel efficient planes on the market. The company's TBM-700, which manufacturers say is the fastest single-engine plane in production, picks him up in Connecticut and whisks him to his destinations, allowing him to complete his travel in one day.
''It's expensive, but even if the cost was two or three times more, I'm still doing more in the course of the day," said Gavin. ''There's a certain advantage to being able to sell your product and still be in your own bed that evening."
NxAERO is the first charter service in the country to use the fuel efficient plane, made by the French company Socata. NxAERO owner Steve Castle of Hamilton said the TBM-700 is the only plane the company uses for its high-flying taxi service.
While most other aircraft its size have twin turboprop engines, the TBM-700 burns less fuel by using a single engine without compromising speed, according to Castle. This keeps flying costs down, he said.
According to Castle, the plane burns 55 gallons an hour and tops off at 343 miles per hour, compared with a
Considered the workhorse of the charter industry, it averages about the same speed as the TBM-700 but averages 108 gallons per hour, almost double the amount of fuel. By comparison, jumbo jets reach speeds of 550 miles per hour and burn around 3,378 gallons per hour, according to Socata.
''We don't pretend to compete with the airlines," said Castle. ''But there are places they won't fly and small operators like me who will."
Robert E. Breiling, president of Robert E. Breiling Associates Inc., a company that compiles turboprop aircraft statistics, said the TBM-700 had slightly lower safety ratings than other single and double turboprop planes over the last five years, but the difference is fairly insignificant.
Safety statistics show that the average turboprop plane had 1.73 accidents per 100,000 flight hours over roughly the last five years, while the TBM-700 had 2.09 accidents, Breiling said. The TBM-700 had 0.9 fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours, versus the average turboprop aircraft's 0.57.
Breiling said inexperienced pilots might account for the difference.
''In these single-engine airplanes, you have less professional pilots who are less experienced," he said. ''These planes are cheaper than twin turboprop aircraft and many of the owners are not as experienced as professional pilots. It takes a pretty savvy guy to fly them."
According to Castle, who is a pilot, the TBM-700 has shorter landing and takeoff requirements than most single engine planes, allowing it to land at rural airports and tiny landing strips that larger planes can't use.
The TBM-700's fuel-efficient performance is still gets good reviews from NxAERO customers, despite a rise in operating costs due to the recent rise in jet fuel prices.
Castle said NxAERO has grown from ''a start-up phase to a pretty steady business," since it opened last in April with a professional crew and three trained pilots, including himself.
Despite having to raise his charter prices by $60 an hour over the past few months, Castle doesn't think his business has been affected negatively by gas prices. He pays anywhere from $3.50 to $5 a gallon for gas, and the four-passenger plane charters for $895 an hour.
Gavin's travel costs now average $22,000 for five days of flying every month, not much more than he was originally paying for tickets and rental cars.
''I can't tell that [gas prices] changed anyone's consuming habits," said Castle. ''These individuals are fairly affluent and their time is a premium."
