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Business Travel RUNWAY TO SUCCESS
Company Policy: Fly GA
 If you own a business and you own an airplane, chances are you either have or badly need a travel policy. While most company travel policies cover how much you’ll reimburse for cabs and hotels, a travel policy in a company that uses general aviation airplanes takes on a whole new dimension.
And if you’re running a small company, like many GA pilots do, odds are you don’t have a team of lawyers in-house that you can turn to for figuring out how to make sure that your use of the airplane doesn’t create a big liability for your company.
The biggest issue that needs to be handled from your company’s standpoint is liability, with aircraft usage, training requirements and reimbursement policies coming in shortly thereafter.
Liability is a big issue because the average GA insurance policy only covers $100,000 per person, so if someone is injured and the damages exceed the per-person limit of your policy, your company becomes a target for a lawsuit.
The simplest way to solve the problem is to simply not allow non-employees to fly in a company aircraft, says Louis Meiners Jr., president of Advocate Consulting, a firm of accounts and lawyers who specialize in helping companies navigate the GA travel maze.
Employees who are injured in a general aviation airplane while on business are covered under workmen’s compensation insurance, and laws in all 50 states ensure that that is the employee’s sole remedy, so they can not file a lawsuit against the employer. Non-employees, whether they are customers, guests or prospects, are quite another problem. Meiners said they represent a liability to the company “because their sole remedy is whatever they can get from the company.”
For non-employees who fly in a company airplane, it’s best to get a waiver that says that in case of an accident, the person will not seek damages from your company above the insurance company pay-out.
“Typically, people do not ask customers to sign a waiver,” Meiners said. “But very often, private pilots ask friends to sign a waiver when they take them on golf trips or fishing trips. That is probably the most common policy of all.”
Use of the aircraft is an issue that will need a policy in your company, particularly since non-business use of the airplane is a very complex tax issue, and the IRS has very stringent rules about what constitutes business travel in an airplane. Flying a Cessna 172 on a 2,000 mile trip probably would not be considered business use by the IRS, so you’ll need to make sure your usage policies for the aircraft don’t get you into trouble with the tax man.
Training and currency are another issue. If you are not the only pilot in your company and you’re concerned about an employee’s capabilities, Meiners said your insurance company will likely have training and currency requirements that will keep the person appropriately proficient.
You’ll need to add the employee to the insurance policy for your airplane, and the insurance company will review his or her training and flying record, along with the capabilities of your airplane, and insist on any additional training or currency the person must undergo.
One area that will affect your pocket book and your client’s is in reimbursement. Generally, companies have a policy in place that will determine how much the company pays for general aviation travel.
Some companies opt for a airline ticket policy, in which the employee can be reimbursed for what it would cost for an airline ticket for the same trip. Others calculate the standard operating cost of the aircraft and agree to pay the hourly fee. The trick with the second method is if you bill clients for travel costs and they balk at paying more than an airline ticket.
—Sean Fulton
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