Former United Airlines training captain Bob Archibald talks about his role as chief safety officer at Jets.com.
Safety is a top concern for Jets.com prospects, say company executives, as it is for most private jet providers.
Safety is often part of the initial volley during early interactions.
Naturally, safety has become a message that nearly every operator and broker highlights on their website.
Wyvern or ARGUS International vets many charter operators.
Some operators are part of both programs.
Charter brokers often display those marks to reassure concerned flyers.
Jets.com co-founder Edgar Alacan notes, “When you book a commercial airline, you don’t ask how many hours the captain has or when the aircraft was refurbished.”
Alacan says, “In private aviation, customers ask for trip reports, hours in type—everything,” adding, “I think the industry has trained them to ask those questions.”
From a macro standpoint, the charter and fractional segments have had few accidents resulting in loss of life.
Aviation International News reports only four fatal U.S. charter jet accidents since 2010.
Fractional operators have had none.
The litany of fatal accidents involves privately operated airplanes flying under Part 91 regulations, which are less stringent than the Part 135 rules that govern commercial operators.
Despite the charter and fractional operators’ records, safety remains a top concern for prospects.
Enter Bob Archibald, a former United Airlines captain with more than 27,000 flight hours, including service as a Boeing 777-line check airman.
Archibald and Alacan met as neighbors in the early 2000s.
Archibald told Alacan to call if he could ever help.
In 2017, Alacan took him up on that offer.
At the time, Archibald says, Jets.com was generating about $30 million in annual revenue as a broker.
The company later acquired Part 135 operator Pittsburgh Jet Center and rebranded it as Private Jet Center.
Today, the company’s annual revenues are over $150 million, Alacan and co-founder Manni Scarso say.
Alacan told Archibald that safety came up in nearly every conversation—and that, as Jets.com grew, it was ready to invest in a more substantial program.
He tells Private Jet Card Comparisons that Jets.com wanted to do more than rely exclusively on third-party services.
“We grew to a size where we wanted to do more around safety, something of substance,” Alacan says.
Speaking of the industry, he adds, “There’s a lot of fluff.”
Since Archibald was still flying for United, he cleared the arrangement with his chief pilot, who approved it.
He created the Jets.com safety program back then, running it when he wasn’t flying, sometimes from a hotel room.
After retiring from United last year, Archibald is continuing in his role as chief safety officer.
In terms of creating the program, Archibald says, “Safety is never one thing. It’s a chain of events.”
For the typical pre-flight vetting to ensure operator compliance with insurance requirements, pilot hours, and training, Archibald says they use both Wyvern and Argus.
Alacan says Jets.com only uses Argus and Wyvern operators, and it will cross-reference the pre-trip reports when an operator participates with both.
Under Archibald, Jets.com has created a program to review every trip post-flight.
From that it has built its own internal database and software that tracks everything possible.
Sales reps contact their clients after each trip.
Client feedback on delays, cabin interiors, cleanliness, and even crew demeanor is logged.
From that, Jets.com has created internal ratings for operators, aircraft, and flight crews.
If there is client feedback on operational issues that is out of the norm, Archibald says Jets.com requests more information to identify any patterns.
For example, a client recently told their rep that there was a delay due to a fuel imbalance.
Any anomaly results in outreach to the operator.
If there is a maintenance-related delay, Archibald says Jets.com reaches out to the operator to understand why.
Jets.com uses around 400 operators annually.
“If they don’t give me an answer, we put them on a temporary do-not-use list,” Archibald says.
There are around 20 operators on the list at any given time, he says.
Operators stay on the DNU list until Archibald and other operations executives can visit.
Jets.com also adds any operator that has an accident or incident to its do-not-use list, again, until it can conduct a site visit.
For all the safety talk, one operator says that after an incident, out of over 400 brokers who use the company, only 11 followed up for a safety update, and Jets.com was one of only four that sent a team for an on-site visit.
The Jets.com has over 20 people in its sourcing department in Boston.
That includes both former pilots and meteorologists.
Archibald says that knowledge of operations and weather helps validate operator responses.
It enables the team to quickly understand the nature of a mechanical situation, whether it could lead to a long delay, and whether a replacement aircraft needs to be sourced right away.
With over $150 million in annual volume, Jets.com is a substantial player in the market.
Alacan says as the industry grows, having volume gives brokers clout with operators.
He says it has also given the company the money to put back into the business, supporting both safety and training for brokers, something that he says now includes three to six months of onboarding, along with quizzes and testing.
In addition to Archibald and his team, David Cohen, Dean of Lynn University’s College of Aeronautics, serves on an external safety advisory board.
Ongoing sales training includes weekly education and updates whenever new issues arise.
For example, after the fatal crash of a privately operated aircraft in winter weather in Bangor, Maine, Archibald held a briefing on what was known and provided education on de-icing so the sales and client teams could be prepared for client questions.
Alacan and Scarso say they are excited about the vitality of the broker space but are concerned about the low barrier to entry.
Alacan says that when he looks at how much the company invests in safety and training, supplemental insurance, and other costs, he’s unsure whether he would do it again.
“Doing what we do, there is a lot of overhead,” he says.
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