Fly Avion (Wolfgang Puck Included)

By JULIETTE ROSSANT Don't like the TV dinners that airlines feed you, or the meal-to-go you can get at the airport? There is an alternative -- for those who can afford it. The jet-set are standing in line to join a new kind of club, Avion Private Jet Club. When it comes to food, though, who ya gonna call? Gotta have a chef with a big name -- a super chef. Well, who's in catering? There are at least two heavyweights, Joachim Splichal and Charlie Palmer, but neither of them have the brand power in their very names -- you know, that "star" quality -- that draws in other stars as passengers. One name, however, should come to mind. Wolfgang Puck is "chef to the stars." He has the celebrity. He has the oldest catering company of the three chefs. He has restaurants in airports -- he even provides food to airlines. Why, he's even an Avion member himself. It should come as no surprise, then, to learn that Wolfgang Puck Catering & Events provide food for Avion. So, how does a start-up service like Avion bag a super chef like Wolfgang Puck? Whether it's Hollywood or not, it's connections, baby: it's all about who(m) you know. If Wolfgang Puck is chef to the stars, then Avion's owner Gary Mansour of Mansour Travel is travel agent to the stars. Gotta get a star from New York to Los Angeles in a heartbeat? Gary's the man. Gotta get the crew out to Morocco for a shoot? Call Gary. It shouldn't come as too big a surprise, then, that Gary has known Wolf since Spago first opened in Hollywood. Enter Avion, Gary's brainchild. Avion Private Jet Club is essentially a travel deal for the price-conscious jet-setter -- because, let's face it, you don't get to be rich for very long unless you're careful with your money. We would all like to ride a LearJet or a GulfStream, yes, but who wouldn't like to pay a little less? What kind of money are we talking about here? Gary knew from experience that a chartered private jet for a cross-country roundtrip can start at $40,000. (Forbes recently cited $5,000/hour, with a discount on round trips at $59,000. Click here to read full article.) Limoisine pick-up and catering? Sorry, those are extras, and they're gonna cost you, too. Avion, which started operating this past March with roundtrip flights between Los Angeles and New York, the most heavily traveled, cross-country route (click here for map), offers members a shared ride. OK, fellow passengers may be complete strangers, but they are hand-picked by Gary personally to maxmimize compatibility. Avion picks you up at the door with a towncar or limousine, takes care of your bags -- and feasts you on Wolfgang Puck catered food. "What more do you need?" asks Gary. Well, a good price: how much does Avion set you back? Club membership is $10,000 for singles and $15,000 for two. A one-way ticket costs $5,000. True, that's still about double a last-minute, one-way ticket in first class on a big American carrier, but it's a fraction of the $40,000 for a private chartered jet. Compare that to closest competitor NetJets, which uses a completely different formula based on "fractional ownership" -- time-share. NetJets runs its own fleets, which fly to many destinations, so, they leave pick-up and such to you (read "your staff" or "your personal assistant" or "your valet" -- you get the picture). There are a lot of charges involved, too -- but what you get is a fleet of jets at your disposal. Popular? You bet: NetJets told superchefblog that one of their largest customers, General Electric, also has its own private corporate fleet and yet still racks up the miles with NetJets. (Superchefblog would like to make special note of NetJets' speed in replying with information: about 10 minutes after we called them, they had sent over a tailored response with the exact information we requested -- a strong indicator of high quality of service.) As for food service, all you have to do is ask for what you want, and NetJets will provide that food, any time, any place. They can even stock the plane based on passenger preference -- so you can be that if Coke executives are flying, there will be no Pepsi on board (or vice versa). Larger aircraft have flight attendants and actually cook meals on board. -- And you pay for it. Between different kinds and levels of service, as well as means of paying (or "buying-in" really, with NetJets) Avion and NetJets don't really compare on price. Instead, think of Avion as a shuttle-route bargain, a shared sky limo. Business Week noted that "The more flight hours you need... the more it [NetJets] costs" (click here to read full article). So, Avion could in fact be preserving a number of customers for other services like NetJets, by helping corporations and individuals shave off added marginal costs -- at least on flights where total anonymity is not a factor. Gary has definitely found this to be true: some members still charter jets for shorter trips, or own shares or time cards in other private jet companies, but for the NY-LA haul they now fly Avion. So, are people signing up for Avion membership? You bet: in less than six months, Gary has racked up members in the four-digits, which in dollar figures means that in membership fees alone he has crossed the $10 million marker. In addition, many members fly one-way on a regular basis. Gary says there are many more people who can and would like to be Avion members, but he is maintaining exclusivity: Members tell me they don't want to listen to a [movie] pitch for five hours! They like the exclusivity. Avion isn't about being arrogant but providing a sense of discretion. With Wolf's colossal empire and culinary reach, from French to Asian, all Gary had to do was fly him around on a number of Avion flights, have the galleys and ovens evaluated, and presto, three item choices per menu per flight. Of course, Wolf and Gary will accommodate special requests. "Someone can say, 'Do you have anything along the lines of duck?' And we will do that dish. We want to treat this like a private jet, even it's not," Gary told superchefblog. Avion is considering further routes on both the East and West Coasts as well an international flights. The Concord may be grounded, but Gary Mansour's Avion is just taking off. And Wolfgang Puck is right there beside him. 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