{"id":1181,"date":"2016-05-02T08:54:40","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T14:54:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flightlistpro.com\/private-jet-charter\/?p=1181"},"modified":"2016-05-02T08:54:40","modified_gmt":"2016-05-02T14:54:40","slug":"burning-man-contracting-charter-services-beginning-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flightlistpro.com\/private-jet-charter\/burning-man-contracting-charter-services-beginning-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Burning Man Contracting Charter Services Beginning 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note – Private charter companies highlighted below, and charter airline proposals noted –\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Burning Man has its eye\u00a0on the sky.<\/p>\n

In an effort to get more Burners to fly to the 70,000-person event in the middle of the Black Rock Desert, organizers have been reviewing proposals from\u00a0air carrier services that would start offering flights\u00a0directly to the playa this year.<\/p>\n

Charter companies and private pilots have been flying to the event\u00a0\u2014\u00a0an annual, weeklong arts party in early September\u00a0\u2014\u00a0since the late 1990s. This, however, would be the first time that the Burning Man organization would contract a company, or a few, to do the job. Additionally, instead of shuttling five or so people, contracted charters would be expected to shuttle about 30 people in an aircraft at one time. Flights would potentially depart from Reno, San Francisco and Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

While Burning Man organizers were set to decide in early April which company\u00a0or companies\u00a0would be contracted, there is still no word as to whether any contracts will go forward this year. Burning Man has released no details as to which companies submitted proposals before the late February response deadline.<\/p>\n

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\"Covered<\/p>\n

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Covered with playa dust, Brielle Gearson, left, and Dina Nadezhdina wait to check-in for their flight home to Los Angeles Monday morning. Their baggage is wrapped in mandatory plastic because the playa dust can clog the conveyor system. An estimated 17,000 Burners utilized the airport from 30 countries, making it the largest single-event driver of traffic at R-TI.\u00a0 Tim Dunn\/RGJ<\/span><\/em><\/div>\n
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“We are still working through the (request for proposals)\u00a0process and will announce details of the program as soon as they are finalized,” said Burning Man spokesman Jim Graham on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The contracted charters would fly from select cities directly to 88NV, the temporary airport that is set up during the week of Burning Man\u00a0outside the perimeter of Black Rock City, where the Burning Man\u00a0populace\u00a0resides. About 2,200 people flew into the makeshift airport last year.<\/p>\n

Charters and private pilots still will be allowed to fly in friends or other individuals free of charge\u00a0if they want, but they cannot be “shuttling” people back and forth, unless they are doing so as authorized by a contract with Burning Man.<\/p>\n

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While many of the charter companies that have historically shuttled Burners to and from the event have been mum regarding any anxiety about how their business might be affected, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport expressed its enthusiasm for the change of pace.\u00a0In the past two or three years, the Reno-Tahoe International Airport has seen an uptick in charter flights departing from its tarmac Burning Man-bound, according to\u00a0airport spokesman Brian Kulpin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

“We are so firmly on the map of Burning Man.\u00a0We love what it does for us.\u00a0We really roll out the red carpet,\u201d said Kulpin.<\/p>\n

Although airport officials were unaware of Burning Man’s plans to increase the air traffic headed to Burning Man, they believe it is makes sense given the rising demand for easier travel to the event. It takes about two hours by car to drive from Reno to the Black Rock Desert, which is northeast of Reno, but it can take as many as six to 10 hours during peak traffic in the first few days of Burning Man.<\/p>\n

By air, it only takes about an hour to travel the less than 100 miles to the Black Rock Desert, Kulpin said.\u00a0That explains why\u00a0three charter flight companies and a multitude of privately operated aircraft directed flights to Burning Man from the Reno-Tahoe International Airport in 2015. While there is no count of how many flights took off to the Burn, 111,737 gallons of jet fuel were sold to charter and private operators during the 2015 event,\u00a0compared to 67,317 gallons during the same week in 2014.<\/p>\n

“People fly in from Europe, then to New York, and then they fly here to our terminal and then they get a private charter. And then we just have charters that just appeal to people who don\u2019t want to deal with the road traffic. The VIPs are another audience too, and that\u2019s becoming more popular,\u201d Kulpin said.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many of the charters that fly to Burning Man \u2014 Advantage Flight, Burner Air and Boutique Air \u2014 declined to comment on concerns about whether their business would be damaged if not chosen by Burning Man to operate flights this year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the companies, Palo Alto, Calif.-based Centurion, said it\u2019s simply a waiting game.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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