单选题
Para. 1 ①As Rachel Raymond from West Orange, N.J., tells it, the day last August when she flew on a private jet ranks as one of the most unreal experiences of her life. ②Ms. Raymond, and her husband, Daniel, along with their three children, took a flight in a seven-seat jet, a Cessna Citation III, complete with two pilots and a well-stocked bar, from Westchester County Airport, in White Plains, N.Y., to upstate Saratoga Springs. ③The Raymonds had decided to take an impromptu trip to Lake George because they had found a last-minute deal where they could fly on that route for only $500.
Para. 2 'Daniel and I have always fantasized about flying private, but it's a luxury that we never thought that we would be able to pay for.' Ms. Raymond said.
Para. 3 ①The charter was a 'SuiteDeal' from the private jet company JetSuite. ②These last-minute deals for one-way private jet charters within the United State cost between $500 and $2,000, and the money the Raymonds paid was comfortably within their budget.
Para. 4 The Raymond's $500 trip is a more extreme example of how little flights on private jets can cost, but industry experts say that a trip on one today is less expensive than it ever has been in the past.
Para. 5 ①Steve Wooster, the managing director of services and air operations for the luxury travel network Virtuoso, said that the proliferation of private jet brands has led to these lower prices. ②'There are many more suppliers than there ever used to be, and competition means prices have dropped,' he said. ③'Private jet flying is now open to a diversity of passengers, not just C.E.O.'s.'
Para. 6 ①JetSmarter, around since 2013, is an example of a player in the private aviation space selling shared flights. ②The company operates on a membership model: Fliers pay a minimum of $15,000 a year and book seats on already scheduled flights through the JetSmarter app, which lists more than 150 domestic and international trips a day. ③Trips under three hours are included in the cost of the membership while longer ones are an average of $300 a person, according to Sergey Petrossov, the company's chief executive officer; most flights have an average of eight to 10 passengers.
Para. 7 ①Members who want to set their own schedule can create a flight and post it to JetSmarter's app so that other interested members can buy seats for the route and help reduce the cost of the charter; if all the seats on the plane sell, the member who created the flight flies for free. ②These crowdsourced trips usually top out at $2,000 a person, a fraction of the $8,000 or more per hour it can cost for a traditional charter. ③'My goal is to make private jet flying less elitist,' Mr. Petrossov said.
Para. 8 ①Blade, which doesn't require membership, also sells flights, but only from December through mid-March and on one route, between Westchester County Airport (with or without a helicopter transfer from Manhattan) and its own terminal in Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport. ② From $1,285 each way, fliers travel on a Bombardier commercial jet retrofitted with 16 seats and receive an array of amenities such as catered meals from Dean & Deluca as well as iPad Pros loaded with first-run movies; they also get accommodations for the weekend at Faena Miami, a luxury beachfront hotel.
Para. 9 The Miami route made its debut two years ago and has been so popular, said company founder Rob Wiesenthal, that this season, the flights will be offered four days a week, instead of the two days that they previously were.