It's a. The executive vice president of the NetJets fractional jet ownership program is presiding over the daily meeting with the operation's division managers. The little conference-room general, who sometimes refers to himself by his suit size -- 42 short -- belies his diminutive stature with a king-size presence. He's zeroing in on the two concerns that are significant in his world, where jets are guaranteed to be delivered anywhere in the country at the drop of a hat: what can go wrong in the next 24 hours and what went wrong in the past 24?
A couple dozen employees surround two large tables, hanging on every word and staring at two projection screens carrying computer images of what is being discussed. First comes the morning weather brief.
A meteorologist reports showers throughout most of New England. High-level hazards will create plenty of turbulence throughout the Midwest and icing will occur in the Northwest.
A pretty typical day of minor inconveniences. As it turns out, there are only a handful and they lasted only a couple of minutes. Tension melts a little. Then comes a maintenance report.
NetJets manages more than private planes, making it -- in number of craft -- the sixth largest airline in the world. Seventy of those planes were out of service the day before. NetJets planes constantly rotate through maintenance, not just to fix problems with engines, airframes and avionics, but to clean interiors and, every 30 months, to completely refurbish them. All similar models are supposed to look the same inside. While owners invest in a piece of a specific plane and ride a different one almost every time, the tail number, not a funky cabin, should be their only indication that it's not always the same aircraft.
