"This is an extremely busy selling season for CitationShares," says
Steve O'Neill, CEO of CitationShares, the Connecticut-based fractional
aircraft operator jointly owned by Cessna and TAG.
"Customers are getting more active," O'Neill says. "Many
customers are buying more hours." Others are placing orders
in time to make their 2003 tax allowances, and in anticipation that
prices could rise next year. "We're swamped," he reports.
CitationShares currently counts 42 aircraft in its fleet of Cessna CJ1, Bravo
and Excel aircraft, and according to O'Neill will take delivery
of at least 15 and possibly 21 new aircraft in 2004.
The company claims more than 400 customers and employs approximately
270, with about 175 pilots.
"More people are buying Bravos than are buying Gulfstreams,"
he says in describing his firm's small-jet strategy, which is also
based on analyses that most customers fly modest distances with
a small number of passengers.
"We have the lowest entry price point in the business for new aircraft,"
O'Neill says of the $4.02 million CJ1. The Cessna Bravo is priced
at $5.71 million and the Excel at $10.15 million.
Fractional shares are of course priced accordingly, and CitationShares
has a jet card program called Platinum by which existing shareowners
can pre-buy flight time in blocks as small as 25 hours. "We
think we have the best product at the best prices in the business
in this economy," O'Neill says.
"We're a value-oriented company. 'Making private practical'
is what we do.
"We currently do not solicit new business on the West Coast,
but there is no limitation to our operating area," he adds.
CitationShares recently carried a customer to Alaska, for example,
and often flies in Canada. "We fly anyplace, any time,"
O'Neill says.
CitationShares, by the way, has decided not to display at NBAA
this year. The company's on the web at www.citationshares.com.
