Arizona is HUGE… You can fit 11 New Hampshire’s, 3 Maine’s and 2 New York’s inside our borders. Nothing is close, including the Grand Canyon.
Our luxury vehicles, the excitement of the day, the sights outside the window and the various stops make the trip up, SUPER FUN. The 4 hours flys by. The trip home; can be a little long.
During the summer months, when the sun sets around 7:30PM, we like to add some s
tops on the journey home. Cameron Trading Post and Sunset Crater are super popular, and helps break up the trip. The winter is a different story, since the sun sets around 5PM. It dark early, so stopping makes zero sense. Our Guests sit back, toss on a movie, or grab a nap.
While I knew it wouldn’t be wildly popular, I wanted to create a faster return trip
option for my Guests interested in getting home earlier. There was only one option, a plane.
The Grand Canyon has an airport. We take Guests there all the time. The helicopter tour companies keep it busy. What I had envisioned was very different. As far as I knew, no tour company was offering this service. Not unchartered waters, but where would I start?
First, I gave the helicopter companies a jingle. Nope.
Next the charter flight companies operating out of Vegas. Nope.
It was looking pretty bleak, when I finally found a small Phoenix based company located in Deer Valley. A bit out of the way, but I could figure it out. They offered flights, in smaller plans, to the Grand Canyon. Nothing that matched my vision, but it was a start.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the cost. I kinda figured it would be expensive, but I was a little sticker shocked. I soon discovered operating a charter flight company wasn’t cheap. Regulations, fuel and pilots weren’t on the discount table….lol.
A partnership was quickly formed.
Option #1 (scroll to the bottom) is the more popular of the two; offering our GREAT ground tour with the private charter flight home.
Option #2 (scroll to the bottom) came by the request of a Guests; which I LOVE! They asked if it was possible to add a helicopter tour of Sedona on the way up? A few (many) calls later…