Getting there
The runway decides the aircraft
Guests do not fly to the boat. They fly to the nearest runway that will take the aeroplane, and that airport decides the whole day.
The most common mistake in flying to a yacht is choosing the aircraft first. A large cabin jet is a magnificent thing and it cannot land at Cannes-Mandelieu, which is twenty minutes from the anchorage, so the party arrives at Nice instead and spends an hour and a half in August traffic while the crew wait with the tender.
The airports the fleet actually uses
Around these sit the airports that cover the rest of the season: Palma and Ibiza for the Balearics, Naples for the Amalfi coast and Capri, Athens and Mykonos for the Aegean, Dubrovnik and Tivat for the Adriatic, and in the Caribbean, Saint Maarten, Antigua and Nassau.
The classes, in one paragraph each
Light jets
Four to six passengers, about two hours of range. London to Nice, Geneva to Olbia, Milan to Ibiza. Cheap by the standards of this world, limited by baggage, and able to use the small airports that sit closest to the water.
Midsize and super midsize
Seven to nine passengers, three to five hours. This is the workhorse of the Mediterranean season: anywhere in Europe to anywhere in the Mediterranean, with proper baggage for a family going on a boat, which is the constraint everybody forgets.
Large cabin
Ten to sixteen passengers, transatlantic without a stop, a cabin you can stand in and sleep in. New York to Nice, Dubai to Olbia. The price roughly doubles again, and it is the only sensible answer for a party crossing an ocean to join a boat.
The question to ask before choosing anything
Where will the boat be on the day, and which airport is closest to that with a runway for the aircraft we need? Every other decision follows. A good broker asks it first; a bad one sells the aeroplane and lets the ground transfer sort itself out.
Use it now
Aircraft Selector
Which aircraft, which airport, and how long from the apron to the passerelle.
