Company pilot Tony Wright and I just returned from the Michigan Lodging and Tourism Association’s (MLTA) conference hosted by the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island.  All I can say is WOW!  We met some of the nicest people in the industry and everyone we met was truly interested in the industry and the State of Michigan.

Being born and raised in Michigan, I have a special love of the state and our resources.  That is one of the reasons I would love to do more scheduled charters “Up North” to places like Traverse City, Mackinac, Munising and Marquette.  I hope with everyone’s help — customers, Resorts and my partners, that we can put something together to get people spending money again in the state.  After traveling all over the country and the world, I find that Michigan has  a little bit of every thing you can see in the other states.  Along the Pictured Rocks I am reminded of the Pali coast in Kauai, In Copper Harbor I am reminded of the North East coast.  From the top of Mackinac Island, the multi-colored waters of the straits remind me of the Caribbean.

I also wanted to thank the MLTA for putting on such a great and informative conference and  opening it up to non-members.  I hope to join as a service member soon.  Every company that is in any way involved with the tourism industry should be a member,  without the MLTA funding the Pure Michigan campaign would have be cut to ineffective levels.

American Business Airways has a program to reduce your travel costs by pooling your flight with other customers wanting to travel to the same areas.   Assume you are considering a flight to Traverse City with your family of 3.  Although the round trip cost for this with an overnight stay would come to about $2500 with taxes and overnight fees, (about $833 per person) you would like to reduce this cost further.  Call us and we will gather names of other customers also wanting to fly to the same general area  (Northern Lower Michigan) and put together a shared flight.  With 3 more passengers, this can reduce the cost to $416 per person.

We are also planning on operating a scheduled charter to the Traverse City and Mackinac Island airports over the weekends.  This will only operate if we can get enough passengers to sign up.  This is a special and not a regular charter, and the prices will be $300 to Traverse City and $350 to Mackinac Island.  We will need a minimum of 4 passengers.  The flights will leave Friday afternoon and return Sunday afternoon. This then is a variation on the shared ride concept.

So if you are interested in sharing a ride anywhere or in our scheduled charter flights “up north”. call us and get on the list.

Also call us for specialized business charter flights.  Many times we can beat the airlines on total travel and employee costs.

Check our blog report on justifying air travel.