taking the PJ to camp
New York Post - June 4, 2007
JET SET KIDS FLYING OFF TO CAMP By SHARRI MARKSON
The city’s youngest high-fliers are pampered campers whose parents
are paying big bucks to jet them off in style to their summer vacations.
In some cases, parents are spending thousands to save kids a bus ride
of less than an hour.
The charter company Revolution Air has assigned more than 20 private
jets to fly children to summer camp at the end of June, at a cost of
about $8,000 a flight.
To cater to their young clients, the company has developed a special
menu, including peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches, chicken fingers
and ice-cream sundaes.
Property developer and mother of three Robin O’Hara is sending her 8-
year-old, Danielle, on a 30-minute flight to Lake Bryn Mawr Camp in
Honesdale, Pa.
“The bus takes 31/2 hours. It is crowded, and it’s always a very
dramatic scene,” said O’Hara, of Great Neck, L.I.
“This year, she is not going with her [older] sisters, so we want to
make it a special, unique experience for her.
“It’s a trend. A lot of my friends do it,” O’Hara said. “They play
videos, they serve kids’ food, sometimes, we’ll have a manicurist on
board.”
Keewaydin camp director Peter Hare said that for the first time in
the Vermont camp’s history, one of its kids, a 12-year-old, will be
arriving by private jet, choosing a one-hour flight over a five-hour
bus trip from New York.
“We have one student flying from New York on a private jet. It’s a
first for us,” he said. “We are not a flashy camp at all. We are a
rustic, simple camp. We live in tents.”
Revolution Air President Ronald Goldstein said bookings are still
coming in.
“Now the kids are starting to demand private jets. The children got
spoiled on the custom of flying privately,” he said.
Goldstein said his clientele are primarily based in New York. “Very
Park Ave,” he said. Some planes leave from airports in New Jersey or
from the Hamptons.
One of the shortest trips the company has booked is 45 minutes from
West Hampton to Saranac Lake.
“The last request we got was for someone who wants to go to camp on
June 25,” he said, adding that the kid has requested Cap’n Crunch be
served.
Charlotte Morello, of Connecticut, has organized a birthday party for
her 9-year-old daughter, Meredith, on a private jet next month. “All
her cousins will come onto the plane,” Morello said. “We’ll have a
manicurist and a model on the runway theme.”