An Inside Look at Magellan Jets Flight Operations: Go Behind the Scenes

Like other large private aviation providers, Magellan Jets has a lot going on behind the scenes to ensure each flight runs smoothly and each client has an exceptional experience. SherpaReport visited the Magellan HQ and their flight operations center to walk through all the details. Here’s an inside look at the workings, from when a client requests a flight through all the checks, coordination, and validations that happen both beforehand and on the day of the flight.

Flight Request Comes In

The starting point is when the Magellan client experience team receives a trip request. Clients can make the request by phone, email, text, or on the Magellan app. The client experience team put all the details, such as the departure date, time, routing, any passenger information, catering or ground transport requests, into the Magellan system.

Initial Feasibility Checks by Flight Operations Department

The first key item is for the Flight Operations Department to run an initial feasibility check. This ensures the flight can proceed as planned, or that any issues or changes can be addressed at the time of booking. Just some of the topics covered by the feasibility check include looking at the airport capabilities, aircraft performance relative to the mission, NOTAMs (Notice to Airmen) and TFRs (Temporary Flight Restrictions) and a weather check if the flight is in the next couple of days.

When the feasibility check raises questions, the client experience team provides recommendations back to the client. For example, Aspen, CO has curfew restrictions and if a client’s flight is arriving in Aspen after sunset, the client's options could be to use a nearby airport to keep their departure time or bump up the flight by an hour to get into Aspen ahead of the curfew.

Brian Littlehale, Senior Director of Flight Operations and Logistics, noted, “It's about having conversations with the client early and often, giving them options, giving them solutions, to get there safely and successfully.”

Aircraft Sourcing & The Magellan Jets Preferred Network

After the feasibility check is completed and any adjustments are made, the trip is good to go. At this stage, the flight confirmation is sent to the customer, and the sourcing department picks up the trip. It’s sourcing, who start looking for an aircraft from the collection of operators within the vetted “Magellan Jets Preferred Network” (MJPN).

Christian Schaible, Senior Director of Safety and Joint Operations, explained that the aircraft operator vetting procedure involves multiple aspects. These include appropriate documentation, reviewing their safety practices and company history, reviewing ratings from third-party agencies such as ARGUS and Wyvern, and conducting many other safety and validation checks.

All of these factors, among others, are used to assess whether the operator meets the Magellan core requirements.

Christian Schaible stated, “We are very meticulous about who we work with,” adding, “When we forge those partnerships, we want to make sure that it's going to be an operator that's aligned with our core values.”

Then, for each flight, Christian explained that they look in detail at the crew. “The big thing for us is time in type. It's proficiency in that aircraft. That proficiency is important to us.” Meaning they look at the number of hours that a pilot has flown in the specific model that they will be flying. He further explained, “We also require dual type-rated pilots.” Meaning both the pilot and co-pilot have to really know the aircraft.

Every flight is also evaluated post-mission. The data collected includes on-time performance, adherence to service standards, and operational feedback. This data is used to maintain an approved operator list and drives continuous performance improvement across the network.

“We continuously use that data and feedback to improve, to continuously make us a better and stronger provider,” said Christian.

Vendor Relations and Performance Tracking

For all the other related services, such as ground transportation, catering, and other suppliers, Magellan maintains their own network of partners. For all these relationships Magellan tracks activity in the same case management system that they use to track operator performance.

“We have to be really good at vendor relations, just as good as we need to be with customer relations,” noted Ryan Foss, Vice President of Product and Innovation, adding that for vendors, they make sure that they live up to the expectations, qualifications, and requirements that Magellan has established.

“We want to have partnerships with them, and that requires giving feedback and tracking performance,” said Brian Littlehale.

The overall Magellan Jets operational framework is built on a foundation of rigorous control, real-time monitoring, and proactive vendor management to ensure consistent service delivery.

Client Communication

Conversations with the client are an ongoing part of the planning. They can cover the basics, such as whether the client wants any catering and whether they need ground transportation organized. Plus Magellan is always looking to answer the question, “How can we elevate this trip for you?”

Once the initial flight is set up, there can be trip request changes as the client's plans change. Ryan Foss noted some common modifications are “a routing change or an aircraft change.” When changes are made, Magellan runs the feasibility check again, for instance, to ensure that the aircraft that was initially selected for the mission remains the correct one for the modified mission.

International Trips and Complexities

Magellan flies clients all over the world, and these international trips bring an extra layer of detail and complexity to the flight planning. For each trip, Magellan checks local regulations to ensure they are up to date, and the client experience group collects all the necessary documents from the client. As part of the planning, they ensure that, at whichever airports they're flying into, customs officers are available at the times the client wants to travel.

“We strive to catch any sort of issues or concerns at the time of the booking,” noted Brian Littlehale.

Magellan does much of its European travel in the summertime, when its jet card and charter customers are going on vacation. These clients are used to the smooth flow of US-based travel, but for international flights, any later changes bring their own complications. If a client wants to change international airports, say to a different airport in France, then Magellan will need to resubmit customs documentation and passports, and will have to reapply for a landing slot. An example that Ryan gave is that “A departure time in Europe is TBD until Eurocontrol assigns the slot to us”, adding that you can request, “I want to depart in the morning”, but Eurocontrol is going to say it's 10am, not 9am.

Ryan noted it’s all about “having the client experience team educate customers in real time about those unique situations.”

Day Prior to Departure

The day before departure is when flight operations get heavily involved again. Brian notes, “Client experience has been talking to the customer throughout this entire period, arranging the ground transportation and the catering, and making sure everything is good.”

Flight operations conduct quality assurance and another feasibility check to ensure that the client’s trip can still be operated safely and successfully. These checks include reviewing the aircraft reposition schedule, weather, NOTAMs, TFRs, and running background checks on the assigned flight crew. After the flight operations group completes these feasibility checks again, they will sign off on the flight and effectively release it. Or, if there are any issues or concerns, they will bring them to the client experience team, who can then have a conversation with the customer.

Day-of-Departure and Flight Tracking

“The day-of-flight is our bread and butter, what we call flight tracking. And we monitor every flight phase of the aircraft for that day,” says Brian.

Magellan asks operators to get in position 60 to 90 minutes prior to their flight, so that the aircraft is ready and waiting for the client. They track the aircraft using their tracking software and stay in constant communication with the operator and crew.

If Magellan flight operations sees that there will be any delay, they will talk directly to the flight crews or the operator to find out what is going on, and will tell the client experience group, who then talk to the customer.

In most cases, when everything is on schedule, the operations group is still talking to the client experience team, confirming that everything is going to plan, and they can tell the customer that this aircraft is in position and the crew is getting ready for departure.

Once the aircraft departs, flight operations continue its tracking and provides an ETA to the client experience team, and also checks on any ground transportation.

Throughout this entire tracking phase, they are also monitoring the National Airspace System Status to see if there are any sort of pop-up issues, such as ground delay programs in effect, so that they can anticipate how to handle them.

The tracking continues all the way to landing and arrival “just making sure that the client is safe and sound.”

Handling Deviations and Client Communication

Most flights go smoothly and according to plan, but aviation is complicated, and there are numerous factors that can require a response to keep things on track. The measure of a good aviation company is how it handles issues when they arise.

Potential problems can include mechanical issues with the plane, weather conditions, or air traffic control delays, and for each, the Magellan flight operations group serves as the quarterback. They coordinate with all the other departments - client experience, sourcing, and the operator – and do their own research and checks on whatever the situation may be.

If it's a weather or an air traffic control delay, they usually want the passengers to get to the airport, because the weather system could move out quicker than anticipated, or an air traffic control delay could be reduced significantly, and the plan is to be ready to go when they are assigned a new slot.

For any mechanical issues, client experience calls the client right away, to make sure they don’t start traveling to the airport and to keep them comfortable, and see if there’s anything they can help with in the short term. Meanwhile, the entire sourcing team will be looking for another plane.

Brian Littlehale emphasized, “It's all about communication. Frequent communication with the customer, during these deviations, we like to talk to the customer every 15 to 20 minutes, no more than that, just to make sure that they know that they are top of our mind and we’re working on solutions.”

Client Engagement and Personal Touches

When new clients sign up with Magellan they are welcomed by the client engagement and experience team. “We acclimate them to what they can expect along the journey, about the booking windows, and give them knowledge,” said Ashley Martin, Client Engagement and Success Manager, and added that they also learn about the client's requirements and how they travel.

Then, for each trip, the client experience team will ask the client about the trip, going through the basics like the number of passengers, amount of luggage, if any pets are traveling, and importantly, understanding the purpose of the trip so they can proactively make it more of a success.

If someone is flying for business travel, they may simply value the time the most. Just being on time and having a meeting space and reliable wi-fi is enough for a successful trip.

For personal and leisure trips, there can be more scope to really personalize the experience. Magellan has had trips where clients are going to a particular sports game and they have created a tailgate in the sky with the inside of the aircraft bedecked in team colors.

“Something as simple as just a handwritten card for their birthday, to something like having a Disney character when they land. We've done everything in between that scale,” noted Ashley, then added, “It’s so fun being able to do those sort of things.”

Ryan Foss further affirmed this Magellan philosophy, saying the company senior executives very much encourage employees to “go above and beyond to create amazing” and he echoed the earlier comments, saying “and it can be a handwritten card to something much more than that.”