1999-03-01 Warren Buffett.Executive Jet Aviation

Refer To：《1999-03-01 Warren Buffett's Letters to Berkshire Shareholders》。

Executive Jet Aviation (1-800-848-6436)

To understand the huge potential at Executive Jet Aviation (EJA), you need some understanding of its business, which is selling fractional shares of jets and operating the fleet for its many owners. Rich Santulli, CEO of EJA, created the fractional ownership industry in 1986, by visualizing an important new way of using planes. Then he combined guts and talent to turn his idea into a major business.

要理解 Executive Jet Aviation（EJA）的巨大潜力，你需要先了解它的业务：它向客户出售喷气式飞机的“分割份额”（fractional shares），并为众多共同拥有者运营这支机队。EJA 的 CEO Rich Santulli 在 1986 年开创了分割所有权行业，他洞察到一种使用飞机的重要新方式，然后把胆识与才华结合起来，把这个点子做成了一门大生意。

In a fractional ownership plan, you purchase a portion — say /1 8th — of any of a wide variety of jets that EJA offers. That purchase entitles you to 100 hours of flying time annually. (“Dead-head” hours don’t count against your allotment, and you are also allowed to average your hours over five years.) In addition, you pay both a monthly management fee and a fee for hours actually flown.

在分割所有权方案中，你购买 EJA 提供的多种喷气式飞机中的某一款的一部分——比如 1/8。这样你每年就获得 100 小时的飞行时间额度。（“空飞/调机”时间 dead-head 不计入你的额度，而且你还可以把小时数在五年内进行平均使用。）此外，你还要支付每月的管理费，以及按实际飞行小时数计算的使用费。

Then, on a few hours notice, EJA makes your plane, or another at least as good, available to you at your choice of the 5500 airports in the U.S. In effect, calling up your plane is like phoning for a taxi.

随后，只要提前几小时通知，EJA 就会在美国 5,500 个机场中任何一个你指定的机场，把你的飞机——或者至少同等级别的一架——安排给你使用。实际上，“叫飞机”就像打电话叫出租车一样。

I first heard about the NetJets® program, as it is called, about four years ago from Frank Rooney, our manager at H.H. Brown. Frank had used and been delighted with the service and suggested that I meet Rich to investigate signing up for my family’s use. It took Rich about 15 minutes to sell me a quarter (200 hours annually) of a Hawker 1000. Since then, my family has learned firsthand — through flying 900 hours on 300 trips — what a friendly, efficient, and safe operation EJA runs. Quite simply, they love this service. In fact, they quickly grew so enthusiastic that I did a testimonial ad for EJA long before I knew there was any possibility of our purchasing the business. I did, however, ask Rich to give me a call if he ever got interested in selling. Luckily, he phoned me last May, and we quickly made a $725 million deal, paying equal amounts of cash and stock.

我第一次听说 NetJets®（这个项目的名称），大约是在四年前，当时是 H.H. Brown 的负责人 Frank Rooney 告诉我的。Frank 用过并且非常满意这项服务，于是建议我去见 Rich，看看是否要为家人签约使用。Rich 大概只花了 15 分钟，就把我“卖”下了一架 Hawker 1000 的四分之一份额（每年 200 小时）。从那以后，我家人通过亲身体验——300 次出行、累计 900 小时飞行——切实体会到 EJA 的运营有多友好、高效、安全。简单说，他们爱上了这项服务。事实上，他们的热情迅速高涨，以至于我在完全不知道我们未来可能收购这家公司之前，就已经为 EJA 拍过一支“见证式”广告。当然，我也跟 Rich 说过：如果他哪天有兴趣出售，请给我打电话。幸运的是，他去年 5 月真的给我打来了电话，我们很快达成了一笔 7.25 亿美元的交易，用现金和股票各付一半。

EJA, which is by far the largest operator in its industry, has more than 1,000 customers and 163 aircraft (including 23 “core” aircraft that are owned or leased by EJA itself, so that it can make sure that service is first-class even during the times when demand is heaviest). Safety, of course, is the paramount issue in any flight operation, and Rich’s pilots — now numbering about 650 — receive extensive training at least twice a year from FlightSafety International, another Berkshire subsidiary and the world leader in pilot training. The bottom line on our pilots: I’ve sold the Berkshire plane and will now do all of my business flying, as well as my personal flying, with NetJets’ crews.

EJA 是其行业中规模遥遥领先的运营商，拥有 1,000 多位客户和 163 架飞机（其中包括 23 架“核心”飞机——由 EJA 自己拥有或租赁——以确保即使在需求最旺的时候也能提供一流服务）。安全当然是任何飞行运营的头等大事。Rich 旗下的飞行员——目前约 650 人——每年至少两次在 FlightSafety International 接受强化训练；FlightSafety 是 Berkshire 的另一家子公司，也是全球飞行员培训的领导者。关于我们飞行员的“最终结论”是：我已经把 Berkshire 的专机卖掉了，以后无论公务还是私人飞行，我都会使用 NetJets 的机组。

NetJets+FlightSafety，2024年数据，372亿美元资本投入，税前利润37亿；而Ferrari，的资本投入要小的多，35亿欧元的所有者权益，税后利润15亿欧元，Ferrari的效率要高得多。

Being the leader in this industry is a major advantage for all concerned. Our customers gain because we have an armada of planes positioned throughout the country at all times, a blanketing that allows us to provide unmatched service. Meanwhile, we gain from the blanketing because it reduces dead-head costs. Another compelling attraction for our clients is that we offer products from Boeing, Gulfstream, Falcon, Cessna, and Raytheon, whereas our two competitors are owned by manufacturers that offer only their own planes. In effect, NetJets is like a physician who can recommend whatever medicine best fits the needs of each patient; our competitors, in contrast, are producers of a “house” brand that they must prescribe for one and all.

成为行业领导者对各方都有重大优势。客户受益在于：我们随时在全国各地布置着一支“机队舰队”，这种覆盖让我们能够提供无可匹敌的服务。与此同时，我们也因这种覆盖而受益：它能降低空飞（dead-head）成本。对客户还有一个很强的吸引力：我们能提供 Boeing、Gulfstream、Falcon、Cessna 和 Raytheon 等多家厂商的机型；而我们的两家竞争对手由制造商持有，只能提供自家飞机。换句话说，NetJets 就像一位医生，可以根据每个病人的需要推荐最合适的药；相反，我们的竞争对手更像只生产并必须推销“自有品牌”的厂家，只能给所有人开同一种药。

In many cases our clients, both corporate and individual, own fractions of several different planes and can therefore match specific planes to specific missions. For example, a client might own /1 16th of three different jets (each giving it 50 hours of flying time), which in total give it a virtual fleet, obtained for a small fraction of the cost of a single plane.

在很多情况下，我们的客户——无论企业还是个人——会同时持有多种不同机型的份额，从而能用“对的飞机”执行“对的任务”。例如，一个客户可能分别持有三种不同喷气机各 1/16 的份额（每种提供 50 小时飞行时间），合计下来就像拥有了一支“虚拟机队”，而成本只相当于买一架飞机的很小一部分。

Significantly, it is not only small businesses that can benefit from fractional ownership. Already, some of America’s largest companies use NetJets as a supplement to their own fleet. This saves them big money in both meeting peak requirements and in flying missions that would require their wholly-owned planes to log a disproportionate amount of dead-head hours.

值得强调的是，分割所有权受益的不只是小企业。实际上，美国一些最大的公司已经在把 NetJets 作为自有机队的补充。这样做能为它们省下大笔钱：既能更经济地满足业务高峰期的额外需求，也能承担一些航程任务——如果用全资自有飞机去飞，会导致不成比例的空飞小时数。

When a plane is slated for personal use, the clinching argument is that either the client signs up now or his children likely will later. That’s an equation I explained to my wonderful Aunt Alice 40 years ago when she asked me whether she could afford a fur coat. My reply settled the issue: “Alice, you aren’t buying it; your heirs are.”

当一架飞机主要用于私人用途时，最有力的一条理由是：要么客户现在就签约，要么以后多半会是他的孩子来签。这个“算式”，我在 40 年前就向我那位可爱的 Alice 姨妈解释过。当时她问我，自己买不买得起一件皮草大衣。我一句话就把问题解决了：“Alice，你不是在买它；是你的继承人在买。”

EJA’s growth has been explosive: In 1997, it accounted for 31% of all corporate jets ordered in the world. Nonetheless, Rich and I believe that the potential of fractional ownership has barely been scratched. If many thousands of owners find it sensible to own 100% of a plane — which must be used 350-400 hours annually if it’s to make economic sense — there must be a large multiple of that number for whom fractional ownership works.

EJA 的增长堪称爆炸式：1997 年，全球所有新订购的公务喷气机里，有 31% 都被它拿下。不过，Rich 和我都相信，飞机分割所有权的潜力才刚刚被触及皮毛。如果成千上万的拥有者觉得“全资买下一架飞机”是划算的——而要让它在经济上说得过去，这架飞机必须每年飞 350–400 小时——那么显然，会有一个远远更大的群体，分割所有权对他们更合适。

In addition to being a terrific executive, Rich is fun. Like most of our managers, he has no economic need whatsoever to work. Rich spends his time at EJA because it’s his baby — and he wants to see how far he can take it. We both already know the answer, both literally and figuratively: to the ends of the earth.

除了是个出色的企业家，Rich 也很有趣。像我们大多数经理人一样，他在经济上完全没有工作的必要。Rich 之所以把时间投入在 EJA，是因为那是他的“孩子”——他想看看自己能把它带到多远。我们俩其实都已经知道答案——无论字面还是比喻意义上：直到地球尽头。

* * * * * * * * * * * *

And now a small hint to Berkshire directors: Last year I spent more than nine times my salary at Borsheim’s and EJA. Just think how Berkshire’s business would boom if you’d only spring for a raise.

现在给 Berkshire 的董事们一个小暗示：去年我在 Borsheim’s 和 EJA 花的钱，是我工资的九倍还多。想想看——要是你们肯给我涨薪，Berkshire 的生意得旺成什么样。

1999-03-01 Warren Buffett.Executive Jet Aviation

1999-03-01 Warren Buffett.Executive Jet Aviation

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