Get a group of fractional aircraft customers together and chances are that at some point the conversation will drift toward billing and in most instances that conversation will include the dreaded fuel surcharge.  With the recent announcement from Flight Options concerning the launch of their Fractional First program, that among among other things eliminates the fuel surcharge, that conversation may be a thing a of the past.

Flight Options has historically included a fuel surcharge as part of their hourly rate.  The formula for this fee, while it isn't rocket science has still been an area of friction among their customers.  The new program will operate closer to the NetJets model that transparently pases fuel costs directly through to the customer.

Another change that the Fractional First program introduces is distance based pricing as opposed to hourly.  Flight time has historically been the base metric used to compute the cost of a trip.  Changing the model to a distance based formula may seem to some owners to be a good idea but considering that flight hours are used to manage maintenance, crews and especially scheduling, we'll have to wait and see how this transition is delivered.

While at face value the changes included within the Fractional First program may seem like a logical progresion for a maturing fractional aircraft program.  Consider that Flight Options is in the midst of large management and operational changes, inlcuding a drawdown of fleet size and a newly unionized pilot group.  Only time will tell if the changes to billing and operations included within the Fractional First program will be effective considering that the hourly rate and even the dreaded fuel surcharge have been a basis for pricing and operations within Flight Options since its inception.