Private-jet company to offer cheap charter flights to Bay Area

BURBANK, Calif. -- A jet charter company is launching a new service from Los Angeles to the Bay Area that offers the advantages of private travel with the cost of commercial airlines.

JetsuiteX will offer flights for just over $100 from Burbank to Concord, Calif. Though commercial airlines offer flights at lower costs - for example, $68 from Burbank to Oakland - JetsuiteX argues that it provides a completely different experience. That includes short waits in the terminal, free drinks and private jets that seat no more than 30 people.

"If you want to show up to the airport an hour and a half early, if you want to jostle through the TSA lines, through the shopping mall terminal, then if you want to wait for your number to be called to board, and you want to sit in the middle seat, then you want to sit at another big airport at the other end where you gotta wait another 45 minutes for your bags, that's fine and good," said JetSuiteX CEO Alex Wilcox.

"But the whole point of flying privately is that you spend less time in the airport then you do in the airplane."

The company also offers the chance to charter an entire 30-seat private jet for $299 a person per hour.

The first Burbank-Concord flight is scheduled for April 19. Future flights will also offer Burbank to Vegas service. The company also offers service between Concord and Las Vegas and San Jose to Bozeman, Mont.

The service's parent company, JetSuite, was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Irvine.