Browse Glossary

Strategic Plans & Aircraft Acquisitions

The selection of your business aviation services and assets is critical. They should be closely matched to your strategic intent and your specific culture. That is why it is essential to have someone who understands the strategic and technical issues of business aviation in your corner. VanAllen has helped numerous clients and their boards navigate the difficult decisions around their business aviation choices.

The Understated Cost of Airline Travel

Straightforward, “green dollar”-based estimates of the cost of airline vs. business-aviation travel ignore the significant travel-time and productivity differences between the two modes. Such estimates also do not account for the uncertainty of arrival time and the potential time cost of having to check and retrieve luggage on commercial flights. Read more >>

The Art & Process of "The Deal"

The following article is designed to guide you through the purchase and delivery of your company’s new aircraft: from doing the appropriate research before the deal is made, to making sure the purchase contract is comprehensive and fair, to ensuring that your company carries out its proper due-diligence when the aircraft is ready. Read more >>

Consulting Services

Each of our consulting services has evolved from our clients’ needs. The common thread is each service addresses a high impact arena. We require that our services meet or exceed your expectations. As we conduct your project we are continually focused on WIIFY: What’s In It For You? In other words, if we cannot help you succeed or improve, why would we spend your money doing it? And finally, each of our services and protocols are perpetually evolving. We learn from every client and every project. That is The VanAllen Way.

Playing the Gripe Game

Complainers can sap the enthusiasm and teamwork—the life—out of a once-cohesive aviation department. But for managers to ignore, reject, or actively fight the griping and the gripers is a losing proposition for everyone. Read more >>

Ain't No Danger – Never Was

The best aviation-services departments focus on their strategic alignment, making sure that they create value by doing the right things the right way. The top priorities are safety, safety, and safety. Maintain ever-evolving standards, policies, procedures, and resources to improve margins of safety. Strive for perfection in the service you provide. Read more >>

Business Aviation’s Redheaded Stepchild

The right aircraft, an appropriate budget, an experienced manager, and a complete team are the essential ingredients for a highly successful aviation department, save for one – unqualified support from the very top. Read more >>

Audits & Reviews

Traditional audits only assure compliance to minimum standards. But our clients expect “Best Practices,” a much higher standard than mere “compliance”. Many want to raise the bar even higher. In response, we offer two unique “audits”: one focuses on operational performance and the other on economic effectiveness. We also support our clients who are seeking the International Standards – Business Aviation Operations (IS-BAO) registration. In each case, our goal is for our clients to gain new knowledge and improved practices through our audit processes.

Your Dog Is Ugly

Who’s to say that the aviation department is operating to the desired standards? And who defines and makes possible those standards? When things are going along smoothly, why question the basics? The fact is, the people most directly involved in the aviation department, including the executive to whom the department reports, may have a myopic... Read more >>

Your Dog Is Ugly II

The following is a fictional account of an aviation-department manager charged by his CEO with the task of putting his department on the road to best practices. He discovers that best-practices performance will require a change in philosophy, and that the “best practices” themselves are not specifically defined. Read more >>