Self-flying companies see major time savings

The adage "time is money" is a strong motivation for corporations to buy their own planes and hire their own pilots.

"The time savings is oftentimes used to reach another business destination in the same day or to return to the office with time left over to conduct more business before day's end," said Rick Uhlmann of CUNA Mutual Group, which has had a corporate plane for 15 years. "This results in savings on meals and hotel expenses, and, of course, limits employees' time away from family and the office."

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A three-hour corporate plane trip to Florida becomes a six- to eight-hour journey on commercial airlines even without delays or cancellations, he said.

CUNA Mutual's seven-seat Cessna Citation Encore business jet often flies to Waverly, Iowa, the headquarters of the 700-employee CUNA Mutual Life Insurance Co. A one-way trip is a half-hour by corporate plane, three hours by car or a lot longer trying to find a commercial flight to nearby Waterloo.

Peggy Robbins, a principal with Flad & Associates architecture and engineering firm, said the company has had a plane since 1975 because of the travel associated with health-care buildings it has designed across the Midwest, including in smaller communities that don't have large airports.

"You just couldn't get to these places," she said. "We fly almost as much corporate as we do commercial."

She said the company averages four to six flights a week with about five passengers per trip on its King Air 90 turboprop plane and employs a full-time pilot. Flad also charters planes sometimes through Wisconsin Aviation.

"The major thing is convenience and time," she said. "When we're deciding, we look at the cost of commercial flight vs. corporate. When we have three or more passengers, we try to use our own plane."

Mead & Hunt, a Madison-based engineering firm, had a corporate plane for about 25 years that they replaced with a used Cessna 340 in 2005, said Andy Platz, vice president and director of aviation services. The company employs a pilot who also does some engineering work.

"We literally wouldn't be doing work in a lot of the surrounding states without that corporate plane," Platz said. "We can fly to our Lansing (Mich.) office in one and a half hours, while it's an eight-hour drive."