NYT: The wealthy jet-set at summer camp

Governor Paul LePage Maine were awaiting a flight to Augusta State Airport on Saturday, when the weekend crush began.

"Love it, love it, love it," Mr. LePage said of the private jet traffic generated by summer camps. "I wish they'd stay a week, while they are here. This is big business."

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For decades, parents in the Northeast who send their children to summer camp faced the same difficult logistics of long trips to remote towns in Maine, New Hampshire and upstate New York to pick up their children or for participate in the visiting day parents.

Now, even as the economy limps along, more affluent families of the country are cutting out the drive and chartering aircraft to fly in summer camps. One private jet broker, Todd Rome Jets Blue Star, said his business summer camps jumped 30 percent over last year.

This weekend, a popular choice for visiting day camps, private jets jammed runways at small rural airports.

"We have 50 to 60 jets here only for one day that," Mr. Kilmer said. "It's a madhouse, because they all leave at the same time, from 4 pm to 6 pm"

At the Sullivan County Airport in Bethel, New York, about 40 percent of recent missions had families to go to summer camp. Officials in Laconia Airport in Gilford, NH, Moultonborough Airport and Moultonborough, NH, reported similar figures.

Robert Lafleur airport in Waterville, which is close to many private camps in the area of Belgrade Lake, Maine, assistant manager, Randy Marshall, brought in two extra people to help handle the traffic over the weekend.

Ethos of simplicity popular private jet travel has led many expensive camp, where seven-week sessions may be worth more than $ 10,000 to balance the habits of their parents against the spirit of simplicity, to spend a summer camp promotion.

Kyle Courtiss, whose family operates Camp Vega in Maine, said his staff were trained "to have an idea about stuff like that," and that private planes were "not what is in this camp on."

Some camps said that they recognized that parents, who flew in private jets are often strong financial supporters of these camps. Arlene Shepherd, director of the camp Skylemar, in Naples, Me., Said that while some high-profile parents, whose children attend Skylemar flew privately, some tourists have never flown on an airplane.

Private jet companies and parents say that these flights have also become more accessible to a broader base of pilots.

"You do not need to be a millionaire to do it," Mr. Roman said.

Ms. Thomas, the airport in Augusta, said the convenience of a private flight far outweigh the costs.

"I left my house at 6:45 this morning, and I'll be home by noon, I was on this trip around the turn at six o'clock," she said, unloading bags of her daughter from the back of her rented sedan Crown Victoria. "Otherwise, this trip for a couple of days."

The practice of flying charters to the camps had become so commonplace that some parents have been known to try to drive – even if they do not want to talk about it.

Woman, two daughters attend Tripp-Lake Camp in Poland, Me., Said: "Most parents in the camp of my childhood have their own aircraft." She scheduled commercial flight in Portland visiting days this weekend, but hopes to catch a private drive back.

"This is a crazy world out there," she added. Now she sends her children to camp in Europe.

This story, "To Reach Simple Life of a summer camp, lining up for private aircraft" first appeared in the New York Times.

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Submited at Tuesday, July 26th, 2011 at 6:00 am on Family by john
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