In response to our story earlier this month, one of our readers who has owned a share in the plane offered his thoughts:

I own a fraction in a Lear 45, a Marquis Jet Card in a Citation X and a card in a Hawker 400XP. Until recently I also had a 25 hour card with Avantair. I have flown virtually every jet in the mid and light category and can say with confidence that the P-180 is just as comfortable as a larger H800 or Lear 55/60 for 4 passengers. 5 passengers or more are too crowded. The luggage is limited (as it is in a Lear 60) due to the opening to the luggage compartment.

While the P180’s are somewhat beaten up with typicaly Italian quality for interior details (door knobs falling off, broken bathroom door, low quality window shades, broken tables) they operate extremely efficiently with outstanding access to short fields – something you don’t get with any other fractional or membership card based aircraft (Lear 40/45 is close with operations into fields of 4,000’). My only other complaint was with the limited fleet availability – which put me on “equivalent aircraft” when one was not available. They defined a Lear 31 as equivalent – not so in my book, but that’s a compliment to the P180’s spaciousness and short field capabilities.

Once Avantair hits 40 a/c in the fleet I will definitely purchase another membership card with them. Unlike other programs like Flexjet and NetJets, there is a smaller premium charged for using their membership program as opposed to the fractional approach.

Finally, you can’t get financing on the P180 yet, so you need to either put up cash or put up other collateral with a financial institution to purchase a share.

Great feedback. Thanks for taking the time.