Shared Ownership versus Outright Purchase

In a comparison with sole ownership, shared ownership looks attractive for low annual usage. This is not surprising, as the annual cost of sole ownership would only be amortised over a relatively low number of flying hours. However the comparison becomes interesting as the potential annual utilisation rises.
Using current published shared ownership costs and sole ownership costs (i.e owning the whole aircraft yourself) from our managed fleet accounts here at Luton, one finds they meet much earlier than one would expect. Broadly speaking they show that the total annual costs of a 3/8 share of an aircraft from a shared ownership company are the same as those for completely sole ownership of a similar aircraft flying the same amount.

Once you go above a 3/8 share then sole ownership is the cheaper option.

Just as important is the comparison of resale value. A wholly owned aircraft can be offered on the world market, and the owner has some degree of control over the resale price, whereas with a share one can only really offer the share back to the shared ownership company you purchased it from - at the price they offer!

Shared ownership does offer valuable additional benefits in terms of back up aircraft and crew but these are also offered by any professional private jet management company.

Both sets of benefits are better than the historic one plane, one crew structure that companies are now realising is not inherently efficient. Crew holidays and retraining or temporary aircraft unserviceability immediately ground the aircraft and the consequent uncertain availability with one plane, one crew operations is now considered unacceptable.