On the heels of the news yesterday that Citi would be acquiring a new jet costing in the vicinity of $50M, there is an update today that the U.S. government called Citi and said "Dudes, not cool", and now there is no more jet. This is one of those instances where I feel dumb to have been mad about nothing. Being angry is very psychologically and physically draining, and now I'm going to figure out a way how to invoice Citi for my loss.
I've been conversationally commenting with my friend Nick since my post yesterday, and he knows much more about the airline industry than me because, well, because he's an airplane pilot. His point of view (with which I agree) is that it is easy and wrong to overlook some of the benefits, reasons, and potential cost savings from private flight for corporate executives. On top of that, many corporations and their board of directors have policies that CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, etc. utilize corporate fleets for safety concerns. This is all understandable and I think in most instances, these policies do make quite a bit of sense. It is just a little easier for Senators to appeal to the indignation of the American public by raising this issue above all others to highlight the "wastefulness" of corporate U.S.A.
For now, it seems like some sense of fairness has prevailed, and I'm left with a useless blog post. From now on, it would be prudent for me to perhaps wait a few seconds to see how a story plays out before expressing my opinion about that story, but I just don't think that would be any fun.
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Hey, don't give me too much credit, I only know where to direct the pointy end of the air transport device. ( I don't really know, I've just got a really expensive/fancy TomTom who tells me what to do.) The jet purchase debacle makes a good story, especially considering what happened to the Detroit 3 (2, Chrysler has been without for a bit) flight departments. It seems fair that Citi is no longer purchasing a jet, although in the long run it could have quite possibly saved them money with dumping two older aircraft. The 7X(http://www.dassaultfalcon.com/aircraft/7x/) which they had on order is quite efficient (as airplanes go, which means about 1.2 miles/gallon...).
Fair in the end would be all of the companies who need planes for growth and maintaining business to hold on to them. Ford and GM are two great examples, and I'm sure in the end if the companies survive they'll come back, but that's no reason to have 150-200 people on the street because some news organization felt their travel arrangements were bogus.
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