Private Charters
 

Has anyone chartered a private plane in Thailand? It seems that it might be easier to charter a plane than to connect through Bangkok when traveling to several destinations within or around Thailand. Anyone done it? How safe and/or reliable would it be?

I suppose if you have unlimited funds, it might be an option. You have to remember that a small plane still has to pay landing and parking fees, as well as fuel. There are only one or two private charter companies in Thailand. I believe one is run by Minor group, operator of most of the Marriots and Four Seasons hotels, so it's probably safe.

How safe is it? It's as safe at the maintenance program for the planes, as safe as the training and experience of the pilots, it's as safe as the reliability of the model of small plane you are chartering. Small planes, of course, are inherently less reliable the large jet liners. Those are operative factors anywhere in the world where you charter a plane.

<i><b>Small planes, of course, are inherently less reliable the large jet liners.</b></i>

This may be conventional wisdom, but it simply isn't true.

Cessna Citations, for example, are commonly used for charters, and many can have every bit as much, and more, safety and navigation equipment as that 747 you flew. In many cases, they can be more reliable than the airlines' planes. Of course, the cost of chartering this type of plane would be enormously more than commercial air tickets.

Rizzuto, I am not referring to the amount of safety equipment, I am relying only on critical incident data - not just crashes, but a variety of untoward incidents. The last data I saw was several years old, but the likelihood of an &quot;untoward incident&quot; in a small plane was several orders of magnitude more than in a jet liner. Small jets, of course, are more reliable than small prop planes, but still less reliable than jet liners. I would consider the Cessna Citation to be the best of the small jets. So if you wanted to charter one for me, I'd certainly consider the offer. ;-)

I've chartered a plane once from Thai Airways back when they operated an executive Challenger jet and it was a weird experience for me. We departed on the Challenger which was fitted nicely catering for VIP travelers but on the way back we found an Airbus A300 parked on the tarmac instead of the Challenger. I was told that the Challenger had a problem and was called back for repair and the Airbus was rerouted for us. It felt really weird flying with only 8 passengers and a full compliment of the crew but at least Thai was responsible enough to replace the aircraft for us without any delays.

If you want to charter a flight then I think PB Airways can accommodate you. I think that their aircraft are serviced by Thai Airways and, as far as I know, there have not been any &quot;incidents&quot; with this airline.

I'd be interested to know the costs versus the $50, $60 airfares that abound in the region.

It'd probably be cheaper to hire a group of handsome Thai lads to pick you up and carry you from place to place on a palanquin, feed you, perform secret rituals of ancient Thai massage at your beck and call, roll you from your penthouse suite at the Oriental to the V.I.P. lounge at the airport, lift you on to the plane, mop your brow on takeoff and drop grapes into your mouth as you fly.

Which, come to think of it, might be rather good.

Sign me up for that one!

and me!!!!

dogster...
Is this from personal experience??

Where do we sign up?
Carol