For the busy corporate executive, time is money.
Which means that traveling in today's crowded skies and congested roads all too often means wasting a lot of money.
Even a private jet involves time traveling to and from airports.
Videoconferencing is an alternative, but some situations require face-to-face contact.
In those cases, Midwestern Helicopter thinks it has the answer with its point-to-point charter service.
"We go parking lot to parking lot," said Chuck Werth, Midwestern Helicopter director of operations. "You're not renting cars. You're not getting limos. You go place to place, have your meeting and reverse it."
The Kenosha-based company serves the cities of Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and Rockford, as well as markets in Michigan, Indiana and Iowa, charging $650 per hour, which is comparable to private jet service, said Werth, a former corporate pilot. (A first charter booking is 50 percent off.) "The issue really is the length of the trip," he said. "If it's over 300 miles, the aircraft is really the better mode because they go 400 mph and we go 120."
But for a busy executive making a short trip, nothing beats a helicopter, Werth said.
"The charter helicopter business is not for everybody," he said. "It's not cheap. But there's a level of executive whose time is so important that the cost seems to be insignificant. And if he can efficiently go out and get some stuff done elsewhere and get back and finish up in his office that's incredibly valuable. And that's what we offer."
Midwestern Helicopter only launched the charter service about a month ago, but it's already confident of success.
"It's a very narrow market but we think it's getting bigger," Werth said. "We get comments from our corporate customers that they can't function in the (air) system anymore."
The company currently has four helicopters that seat three people, with one certified for charters and the others in the certification process. The company plans to buy a large helicopter that will seat six or seven, Werth said.
Midwestern Helicopter started four years ago selling new and used Robinson helicopters and servicing them. It also offers scheduled tours, as well as flight instruction with two full-time and four part-time instructors. Those who learn to fly from Midwestern can rent a helicopter from the company.
Midwestern Helicopter also offers customers complimentary executive business meeting space at its Kenosha headquarters, including a conference center with state-of-the-art Smart Board presentation tools, projector, wireless Internet service and on-site technical assistance.
It's a one owner company. ''He's a great guy to work for," Werth said of the owner, who prefers to remain anonymous. "He lets us pretty much run the operation."
Werth, 63, was hired a couple of years ago to develop the charter service, something he had done before.
The development time included getting certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, something that almost didn't happen when the overburdened agency suspended processing of charter certificates. However, Midwestern was about 75 percent done at that point and was allowed to finish and earn its charter certificate.
A charter certificate is required for flights that don't start and end at the same location.
The FAA "scrutinizes us very closely," Werth said, with surprise inspections and much attention to regulations and paperwork.
Midwestern Helicopter's charter service also is offered for cargo.
"Usually it's a part for a very expensive machine that's down and the down time will kill you," Werth said. "They just can't afford for things to be stopped so it doesn't matter what it costs to get the part."
Sometimes that cargo is even more important, as it was recently when Midwestern did the transportation for a transplant case involving the University of Chicago and a hospital in southeastern Wisconsin.
"Trying to do that in a vehicle is impossible - you can't get through the traffic and I don't care if it's 9 o'clock at night," said Werth, who once handled two heart transplants on Christmas Eve. "Obviously two people died but the good news is you saved two lives. It's more rewarding than sitting waiting for some executive in a meeting."
Because of their nature, helicopters face a much more liberal flying environment than airplanes.
"We can stop and slow down and we usually fly low - 300 to 500 feet off the ground," said Werth, a former air traffic controller at O'Hare. "You don't have to babysit helicopters. You don't have to worry about them landing and getting off the runway and taxiing."
Werth said any fear of helicopters disappears on a first flight.
"Once they get in it the problem is solved," he said. "It's like suspended animation. There's hardly any feeling of motion or flight because the blades on a helicopter are flexible and when there's a little turbulence the blades absorb a lot of that turbulence. So you really get a much better ride in windy conditions than you will in a fixed wing aircraft."
