By LAUREN SHEPHERD
Associated Press
NEW YORK
When a meeting with clients runs late, Andy Davidson doesn’t have to worry that his plane will leave without him.
Instead of impatiently waiting in mile-long security lines or silently waging war over a shared airplane armrest, Davidson can walk straight to his own six-seater, climb into the cockpit and take off.
Davidson, the owner of a New York-based financial consulting business, is a member of a small but growing group of businessmen who have taken their passion for flying and turned it into a more convenient — if less economical — form of transportation.
Most of these executives either buy or lease small planes, called single-engine pistons, with seating room equivalent to a family sedan and the ability to fly up to about 1,000 miles. With many airlines cutting back flights to smaller destinations, small business owners and midlevel executives are realizing that flying themselves might actually be feasible.
According to the Federal Administration Association, the number of hours single-engine piston planes are flown each year is expected to rise 17 percent by 2020, with growth of about 1 percent per year. Although some of that increase may be due to pilots who fly for recreation, FAA spokesman Hank Price said the government anticipates that business use of private aircraft will grow faster than leisure use.
Anecdotal evidence seems to confirm that more businessmen are seeing personal aviation as a transportation option. Flying clubs, where pilots can share ownership of a plane or receive additional training, are filling up with executives. One Atlanta-based club called Airshares Elite, founded in 1999, caters specifically to businessmen.
