Business aviation takes off

Business aviation is on the rise around the country, with the number of trips up about 10 percent last year, following a dismal 2009 in which operations fell by almost a third. Business travel on commercial airlines is also increasing, with business-class spending up 60 percent in the third quarter, according to American Express Business Insights, the analytics arm of the credit card company.

E-Dialog is among the local companies using Hanscom more often these days. Executives from the Burlington-based e-mail service provider chartered four trips out of Hanscom last year, double the number they went on in 2009, as revenues rebounded.

“There’s nothing like a face-to-face meeting,’’ said Arthur Sweetser, chief marketing officer for e-Dialog. “There’s just an urgency that requires us to be present to show that we’re resolved to fixing a problem’’ for a client.

The cost to hire a private jet is comparable to what e-Dialog would pay for commercial airline trips for its executives, but the time saved, Sweetser said, “hands down’’ makes charters a more efficient mode of travel.

E-Dialog flies on Linear Air of Concord, which has four Eclipse 500 jets at Hanscom. Linear Air’s traffic fell by half in 2009 as companies “hunkered down’’ and the Eclipse manufacturer went into bankruptcy, said Bill Herp, Linear president. Last year, business doubled, Herp said, and he expects 2011 to be even better as more clients turn to the smaller, less expensive jets his company flies.

Linear’s four-passenger jets, known as “very light jets,’’ cost companies about $1,500 an hour to charter, compared to around $5,000 an hour for a 10-passenger jet at Hanscom.

Business is also up at Rectrix Aviation Inc. of Hyannis — by about 15 percent — and it just opened a spacious office at Hanscom. The charter company also added a new jet to its Hanscom fleet in September and hired three additional pilots.