Safety Consultants Assess Charter Operations

<B> Safety Consultants Assess Charter Operations</B>

For business travel buyers who want an independent evaluation of the operations of a particular charter services provider, there are a number of consulting firms whose employees--many of them pilots--are experts on air safety.

Palmyra, N.J.-based Wyvern Ltd. has more than 50 Fortune 100 customers that take advantage of its independent safety audits of domestic and international air charter operators. Since opening its doors in 1990, Wyvern has conducted 150 such audits.

After the audits, Wyvern prints the results in a monthly publication called The Wyvern Report, which is shared among clients. Wyvern's audit standards were developed using an enhanced version of the Federal Aviation Regulations.

The company also performs internal audits of corporate aviation departments.

But consulting services are costly. Another firm, Phaneuf Associates Inc., Washington, D.C., last month announced a new program called ACE, Air Charter Evaluation. The program was scrapped because it didn't attract enough interest to lower the costs of the evaluations, which were $3,500 each. The program also required a $12,000 membership fee.

"We do a little better than that," said Chuck Dugan, Wyvern's marketing director, declining to reveal its consulting fees.

Phaneuf's program was prompted by one of its customers, Los Angeles-based oil firm Atlantic Richfield. The idea had been to get customers using the same charter operators to split the cost of the labor-intensive evaluations. But only four larger-sized companies signed on, as smaller ones couldn't afford the program.