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Bill Baer, the owner of Baer Air an air carrier headquartered on Merritt Island, will tell you running charter flights is no walk in the clouds. Strict FAA guidelines, continued maintenance, rising fuel and insurance costs as well as other factors make this a tough business to get into.

“It’s a business that you have to be singularly focused on safety,” Baer said. “Every decision you make has to be based on running a safe operation.”

Baer has been in the aviation business for more than two decades working as a pilot for a commercial airline. He is still flies commercially, but also opened his own carrier in 2003. He said he made the decision to open his own company following the horrific events of September 11.

“Frankly, I really didn't know what was going to happen with the airline business,” Baer said.

Baer said charting a plane can eliminate the wait times and delays often experienced when flying commercially.

“There is a greater interest (these days) in alternate modes of air travel,” he said.

Of course with the added convenience of flying charter comes the added cost. A customer chartering a small plane from Baer may expect to pay about $2,000 for a six-seat plane roundtrip from Brevard to Miami. Change that destination from Brevard to North Carolina and the price jumps up to almost $6,000. Pricey as these rates may seem to some, Baer said his clients are saving in time. For instance, an executive can fly to three or four interstate meetings and be back at home the same day.

“It's incredibly convenient,” he said.

Baer, who is now in his third year of operations, said his business holding its own, but believes it’s currently in a growth stage.

Tom Crevasse, who has owned Vintage Props & Jets for 14 years, knows a thing or two about growing a charter business. His company, based in New Smyrna Beach, is now primarily a scheduled commuter service that offers private charter services. However, Crevasse now in his 60’s and boasting 26,000 hours in the air, started out offering only charter service to his clients, and that he said, just happened by accident.

Crevasse, who once made a living as a crop duster and then as flight school instructor, said he never had any desire to haul people around. But, fate decided otherwise, and after he flew a couple over to the Abacos as a favor, Crevasse found himself neck-deep business. It was all, he said, from word of mouth.

“ I didn’t ever want to do it, it just happened,” he said. “It just kept growing and growing.”

Though he has done well, sometimes sending out as many as 12 and 13 flights per day from Melbourne, Daytona Beach, New Smyrna Beach, and Ft. Lauderdale airports, Crevasse warns it is not an easy operation to run.

“There’s probably 50 charters (that he knows of) that have come and gone,” he said. “They’re here today and gone tomorrow. For everyone that succeeds there are probably 100 that fail.”

Part of the challenge, Crevasse believes, is in keeping up with government regulations and paperwork.

“Everyday they put more and more stuff on you,” he said. “There is a lot of stuff that you have to keep up on.”

Another challenge, according to Crevasse, is in providing good customer service and ensuring that his clients are able to get where they need to be on time.

“ If my mechanics have to stay here all night long (to get a plane ready) they do,” he said. “We do whatever we have to do to take one of our customers.”

Being in this business, he said, takes 100 percent of your attention.

“It’s a pretty big weight on your shoulders. You can’t be out there fishing, you’ve got to live, breathe, eat it and sleep with it.”

One way to offer charter flights to clients and still avoid the headaches of owning a fleet is to do what Blue Star Jets does. Just broker the deal.

Blue Star Jets is a private jet charter brokerage company that offers national, international, and interstate service to their clients across the globe.

Gary McCord, the director of sales at the company’s Miami office, said using a jet broker can provide charter clients with a variety of flight options and lower costs. For instance, McCord said using a broker takes the legwork out of a client’s search for an available craft. The six-year-old New York-based company works with hundreds of carriers all over the world. In addition, McCord said, because they deal in high-volume sales, they are able to offer more competitive rates.

Although the company might be able to negotiate a better rate because of its large network, fuel costs are still rising and that is a charge passed along to all aviation consumers.

According to the FAA’s Operational Evolution Plan, which examines efficiency within the industry, U.S. airlines are expected see $5 billion in losses for 2006. The rising cost of jet fuel is a key factor in the industry’s losses. The study states prices have more than doubled in the past six years. Since the industry uses about 19 billion gallons of the stuff a year, according to the report, that means every 1-cent-per-gallon increase drives the annual cost up $190 million for the industry.

Since March, when McCord took on the director’s position he said has seen the cost of fueling jets increase by $100 per hour, making the cost to fly a light jet at about $300 per hour. McCord said rising costs of fuel and insurance might have some people opting to sell their own planes and instead signing up for a “Skycard.”

The cards, used for airtime hours, may be purchased starting at $50,000 and top out at $1 million. Cardholders receive price breaks and other incentives, McCord said.

“It’s like a debit card for jets,” he said.

According to McCord, the sky card program differs from the fractional jet type of programs started in the 1980’s in that clients have more flexibility. Fractional ownership limits customers to one type of aircraft, whereas cardholders are able to fly, for instance, to New York in a light jet one day and then cruise off to Europe in a Boeing Business jet the next.

“We only bill you when you fly, there are no monthly fees,” McCord said of the card program.

Blue Star’s clients range from rock stars to executives, some opting to charter flights rather than dealing with ownership.

“The rule of thumb is if you fly more than 500 hours per year than it’s worth owning your own,” McCord noted.

For more information, please visit Vintage Props & Jets at www.vpj.com, Baer Air at www.flybaerair.com and Blue Star Jets www.bluestarjets.com