I did fly for business before the lo cost model expanded across most of Europe. I was fortunate in that one of my ‘hubs’ was Milano Linate which is both central and cheap, while lo cost, when it arrived, flew out of Bergamo. Augsburg in Munich was another convenient IFR destination, but in general European capitals do not provide GA with affordable IFR airports, so unless your sector is a secondary to secondary city using GA may be hard to justify to your alter ego accountant.
My experience is that your aircraft has to have above average maintenance. Unfortunately a lot of the maintenance capability in the ‘field’ away from base is only capable of dealing with simple popular American aircraft. This argues for a simple popular American aircraft.
To have a decent despatch rate you also need to be current to fly IFR and at night. The logic then ‘follows’ that you should be flying a multi, which in turn would mean a legacy twin (this was pre Twinstar or Tecnam, although the Seneca V and Partenavia were in production).
With hindsight today I would prefer to have flown a more modern SEP than my trusty Aztec which did, however, serve me well for ten years, with only two maintenance outs. However see below comment on icing.
The Aztec is FIKI approved, and is known to be able to cope well with icing, this being borne out by the safety statistics on icing for the type. Northern European IFR from September through May in GA you are likely to experience icing in the airways. If you are really using the aircraft as a business tool then you soon appreciate that FIKI is a more viable proposition for the turbine crowd.
Through this tortuous logic I then concluded that piston GA is suitable for light IFR, and in that context a modern SEP with some grunt (182T, Cirrus, lightly loaded 172SP), which is easily spannered away from base (arguably the Cessna trumps the Cirrus) would be my choice today. I also like to see my forced landing so SEP IFR implies quite light IFR with good ceilings and ideally minimum exposure to night.
I also believe in the Line Operating Flight Training logic of the airlines – apply more conservative standards to your mission until you are very familiar with a route and destination.
In short if you live a long way from an airline hub but have an IFR airport for GA and you have a business need around 400-500 nm away, then self fly IFR may make sense but be prepared to drive to catch an airline if the weather is forecast to be worse than light IFR.
99% of my flying is for personal pleasure but very occasionally I am able to use it for business.
My business is cars, specifically Mercedes and often classic ones. I recently flew Denham to Liverpool, 5 minute taxi ride to a little lock-up behind a pub, bought a 1966 230sl for a song, got back in the still waiting taxi, flew back to Denham and was in my office in Richmond by lunch time. Putting the direct costs in my book-keeping was the sweetest book-keeping entry I’ve ever made!
I thought it might be interesting for those of us who fly for business to share some ideas on how to make it work. I don’t mean how to be a corporate pilot but how to use an aircraft for casual business use.
I don’t want to focus on the “will my customer get upset” stuff which gets mentioned on here every time the subject comes up but more on practical ways to use an aircraft for your business.
I am fortunate in that probably 80% of my flying is for work. For me the ability to get to Passau, Straubing, Speyer direct from home is a huge time saver. While I essentially work for myself, which obviously helps, how have people been able to use a private aircraft in a corporate environment – can you expense fuel for example?
A few points that I think are key:
Any other ideas?
Jason,
having consciously put myself in a situation where I may be able to fly for work, I’d love to hear about your experience re: expense/tax!
I think the best approach for employed people is to pretend the private car was used. Getting paid for using the private aircraft at real cost and being allowed to use it is rare in the corporate environment. All my previous employers (big US tech companies) had a worldwide ban on private air travel but it did happen and it was “don’t ask, don’t tell”.
Jason is in a lucky position that he has a need to go to Passau, Straubing, Speyer. That is rare these days and he probably works with German SMEs. Most of the business I am involved in happens in the big cities and there, private air travel is kind of pointless. The few times I did it to places like Paris or Prague, I always regretted it.
If you live in the middle of nowhere that happens to have a well equipped airfield (e.g. Schwäbisch Hall) or you have to go to places in the middle of nowhere that happen to have a well equipped airport (e.g. Straubing but not Speyer/Passau because that’s VFR only), then private air travel can be very convenient.
Places like Schwäbisch Hall, Schweinsfurt, Wolfsburg/Braunschweig with IFR exist because they are in the boondocks but happen to harbor billion Euro world market leaders who need to be connected to the civilized world. Was I to live there, my airplane would be flying several times a week.
For those who live close to a city and whose business is in the big cities, there is pretty much no use for GA.
I’d love to hear about your experience re: expense/tax!
I wrote fairly extensively here regarding the UK tax situation, which I happened to “explore in depth” and would not want to repeat 
but currently I am working all day on the Annual so can’t write much. It’s difficult here with the Benefit in Kind rules coupled with sometimes extremely aggressive tax inspectors (financially incentivised to use whatever means to extract a settlement which doesn’t get examined at a commissioners’ hearing) and probably the best way is to own the plane personally and just bill the pro-rated % of airborne time to the company, at the actual (full) cost (not 45p/mile or whatever which is just a handy rule for cars).
ou always need to be able to cancel due weather, tech problems etc
That is why I would often fly up the night before, and stay locally. Then if one can’t fly, one can drive, etc.
I think the best approach for employed people is to pretend the private car was used.
Whilst I agree with this approach, I knew a guy that got audited and they looked at the cars maintenance records and checked the odometer.
Needless to say, there was a “discrepancy” .
The few times I did it to places like Paris or Prague, I always regretted it.
Ah, come on Achim, Paris wasn’t that bad, was it ?
Whilst I agree with this approach, I knew a guy that got audited and they looked at the cars maintenance records and checked the odometer.
There is a distinction to be made here between whether one pretends to use a car to
I don’t think the latter is illegal, if you claim the nationally agreed mileage rate. What happens is that a prosecution is impossible (because you have not underpaid tax – a subtle aspect of UK tax law which may not be true elsewhere) but the taxman can use the fact that your tax return contains an error to open an investigation (and usually they will find something else).
Prague is 100% flyable – there is a great airport with great H24 facilities and great transport links – Ruzyne LKPR. The only drawback is that it costs €200 (1400kg). In a business context this is probably peanuts.
Ah, come on Achim, Paris wasn’t that bad, was it ?
In both places, you can’t seem to get customs, IFR and more or less reasonable charges at the same time, it seems.
Ah, come on Achim, Paris wasn’t that bad, was it ?
No, I saw a nice Cardinal and C210 there From a business point of view it was bad. I could have gotten there much faster, an order of magnitude cheaper and more relaxed by using the TGV or the (almost no longer existing) commercial flight. For me business is about efficiency, I never wanted to operate a “lifestyle company”.
To add insult to injury, I have a company in Ghent, Belgium where it could work. Only that Ghent doesn’t even have an airport anymore, even though it is a buzzing filthy rich area! I have to fly to Kortrijk or Oostend and take a long car ride over the notoriously congested Belgian highways (ca 45-60min). Cheaper and more time efficient to fly to Brussels unfortunately.
I am always longing for that business meeting at a remote place that happens to have an airport with instrument approach nearby 
