Tourism & Gaming:

To the business executive who has to get from Point A to Point B quickly, time is money and how much it costs is secondary to how long it takes to get there.

In today's environment of flying through hub airports to get somewhere, time-killing security checks and flight delays, using a private jet becomes a viable option.

But how can you cut the costs? It isn't every executive who can go out and buy a Gulfstream to get to you where you need to go in a few hours.

While there are hundreds of air charter brokers – some of them even based here in Las Vegas – that bring clients together with aircraft for hire, a New York company is taking a new approach to travel that blends the use of charter aircraft with viable airline connections.

George Khairallah has co-developed JetCombo.com, a Web site with a search engine that overlays existing airline schedules with charter and private aircraft availability. Through the JetCombo.com system, customers can build itineraries that emphasize timely doorstep-to-doorstep service, utilizing small, secondary airports that aren't options for commercial carriers or charters with big jets.

"In the U.S. , the airline hub-and-spoke system jams over 450 million passengers a year through 30 airports, forcing millions of people to sit and wait for the ‘next flight,’ sometimes for hours on end," Khairallah said in a press release about his company. " U.S. – so that flying from Groton to Greenville is an actual possibility – utilizing different types of airplanes and new options in a way that is both practical and efficient."JetCombo.com redistributes air traffic to the other 5,400 public airports in the

Khairallah , who developed his business plan with partner Michael Thomas , said the idea was germinated in 2002, then launched for business-to-business transactions through travel agents in 2004. Now, the product is available directly to consumers after the Web site's launch in December.

A licensed pilot, Khairallah saw the advantages of bringing the commercial, charter and private-pilot worlds together. Over the years, he has built a database of reliable companies and established relationships with pilots that are certified to transport passengers.

"So far, it has exceeded all our expectations," Khairallah said in a recent telephone interview.

Khairallah wouldn't say how many passengers he has booked, but he did say Las Vegas has turned out to be one of his company's busiest destinations, primarily for outbound traffic.

"It's a lot smaller than New York , but Las Vegas has been pretty good for us," he said.

Although he had a number of aircraft providers in his database, he found that jet operators are calling him to become a part of the JetCombo network.

North Las Vegas or Henderson airports for a local trip. For some airports, you can type in a ZIP code to find the closest airport.JetCombo.com's Web site is easy to navigate and similar to most travel sites for booking flights. Simply type in the departure and arrival points. Small airports are included on the site so, for example, you could plug in

Customers have a choice of first class, business class or economy service and it's easy to check off not using small jets, turboprops or piston-driven private aircraft if you prefer not to use them.

There also are special panes on the site for one-way travel specials, private jet and private charter services, large groups and signing up for e-mail alerts to choose up to 10 destinations to monitor for special deals.

"We review the requests carefully because sometimes we'll get clients who want to fly 10 passengers into an airport so they'll need a plane of a certain size and flying but the runway at their choice of airports isn't long enough to accommodate the size plane they need to fly," Khairallah said.

Flying private jets can be pricey. But flying private aircraft also can open the door to two-for-one, three-for-one and other multiple-seat deals.

For example, I sought a round-trip ticket in March from North Las Vegas Airport to Bozeman, Mont.'s Gallatin County Airport and JetCombo provided flights on private planes for $5,027 round trip. The trip would take just more than four hours, but the use of small airports would minimize check-in times.

The JetCombo report on the flight notes that "two guests fly free" on that ticket. Khairallah said with that reporting system in place, business people can take colleagues and assistants along and minimize the cost.

One other feature offered by JetCombo enables environmentally conscious business people and their companies to purchase carbon credits to make their trips "carbon neutral" to the environment.

Khairallah said his company provides information on the level of emissions of every flight and an equivalent dollar amount to neutralize the pollution. For customers who want to make their travels carbon neutral, money is collected and sent to Native Energy, an organization that is partially non-profit that invests in renewable energy projects primarily on Native American land.

"For customers who want to contribute to alternative energy, we pass through the amounts calculated by Native Energy to its projects," Khairallah said.

In Other Tourism News:

Nevada Commission on Tourism received a report last week indicating that requests for information about the state are going through the roof, a good sign that people are considering Nevada for their vacations this year.Online success: The

JoLyn Laney, deputy director of marketing and advertising for the commission , told commissioners that visits to Nevada 's tourism Web site, Nevada brochure are up 85 percent.www.travelnevada.com, were up 310 percent in the second quarter of the fiscal year and that online requests for a printed

The commission has requested a second printing of 200,000 Nevada tourism guides after 425,000 of them were distributed last year and it's estimated that 625,000 will go out this year.

The state's popular "icon" advertising campaign, which has placed a tuxedoed Wayne Newton fishing in Pyramid Lake, the Blue Man Group paddling around Lake Tahoe, a lineup of Elvis impersonators mountain-biking Lamoile Canyon and showgirls cross-country skiing and golfing, continue to resonate with audiences.

In fact, the commission was approached by a celebrity who volunteered to be the next Nevada icon. Chef Wolfgang Puck offered his services, so the commission has cooked up a photo shoot in March at Valley of Fire State Park.

Familiarization trips to out-of-market journalists who write about Nevada for tourism publications continue to sell the state. Commissioners were told that the state received the equivalent of $43 million in media value in 2007, a 23 percent increase over the total calculated in 2006.

On the down side, total international media value was down from the previous year with the state's representatives abroad saying that the rise in price in airline tickets and economic insecurity overseas contributing to the downturn. Kyosuke Okada , who represents the state as well as the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority in Japan , said tourists there are looking to stay a little closer to home, considering instead trips to China .

Commissioner Ferenc Szony said now is not the time to withdraw from delivering the state's tourism message abroad. If anything, he said, now is a perfect time for foreign travelers to come to the United States while the dollar is weak against foreign currencies and tourists get more for their money here.

China and India are the next big markets from which to draw international visitors because the number of people who can afford to travel abroad is expanding.No representation in India : Tourism experts worldwide say

But Terry Jicinsky, senior vice president of marketing for the LVCVA, said India isn't on the short list of places to open an overseas office in the 2009 fiscal year. Maybe, he said, it would be considered in the 2010 fiscal year.

San Francisco -based Virgin America, which has three round trips a day between McCarran and San Francisco, has applied with the U.S. Department of Transportation to fly between Los Angeles and Cabo San Lucas . Virgin America To Cabo:

Frontier Airlines is giving up the route in April and Virgin executives say they view Cabo as "an opportunity." It would be the first international destination for the airline that began flying in August.

United Airlines and Delta also have applied for the route.

Assuming that Virgin America delivers on plans to link Las Vegas with Los Angeles , the locals could get a seamless route to the popular Mexican resort city.