Kiefer Sutherland needs to get to Seattle to play hockey. Sutherland is coming to skate as the honorary chairman (and main draw) of the Hockey Challenge, the Seattle Ronald McDonald House charity's annual fundraiser. But he is also in the middle of shooting 24. Because Jack Bauer is in every scene of Fox's mega-hit, Sutherland is needed on the Los Angeles set 24/7.

Enter John Hopen, Seattle Ronald Mc- Donald House board member and former corporate pilot for a leading Puget Sound company. Hopen makes a few calls to secure a corporate jet to deliver Sutherland, and a number of other A-list celebrities, to the charity event. Sutherland flies in, skates a few shifts and heads back to L.A. to prepare for his Saturday-evening shoot.

While this specific flight may be exceptional, the efficiency of delivering and returning the star to and from Seattle demonstrates the fundamental appeal of corporate jet travel.

"You show up at the airfield as close as 15 minutes before your scheduled flight time," explains Hopen, who spent 20 years in aviation and is now an executive vice president of Bellevue-based Reklaim Technologies. "The crew loads your bags and the execs climb on and go for a ride."

The efficiency is impressive. And the comparison with commercial travel is . . . well, there is no comparison.

Consider a trip from Sea-Tac airport to New York's JFK, the most common airport for direct commercial flights from Seattle. An executive typically leaves a downtown Seattle office about 2.5 hours before the scheduled flight. And once the outbound commute be- gins, it rarely ends. Delays are common, and the traveler is tethered to the gate, knowing the airplane could leave at a moment's notice.

After landing at JFK, the commercial passenger awaits baggage, then begins the arduous commute (typically another two-plus hours) into Manhattan. All told, even with no delays, travel time exceeds nine hours.

The executive team flying onboard a chartered jet departs downtown for Boeing Field half an hour before the scheduled flight time. The passengers conduct a meeting during the 4.5-hour flight (same as the commercial jet) to New Jersey's Teterboro Airport, where a towncar awaits them on the tarmac. The luggage is stowed within five minutes and the passengers complete the half-hour trip into the city.

Maybe that's why Jim Collins, author of the business best seller Built to Last, insists on a private jet when he travels for speaking engagements, in addition to his $60,000 speaking fee.

"People no longer consider flying commercially and corporate jet travel as an 'apples- to-apples' comparison," states Brian Kirkdoffer, president of Clay Lacy Aviation in Los Angeles. "Commercial travel is often unfeasible in a global marketplace, when executive teams have to meet with several clients in several countries over a short window of time."

"Companies now include charter jet travel within the project budget," continues Kirkdoffer, a pilot himself with 10,000 hours of logged flight time. "This is clearly a sign of both how common it is and how important it is."

While many large companies have always used charter jets, executives at smaller companies are the fastest-growing demographic as private jet travel allows them to remain competitive and nimble. There is also great growth in international jet charters because global expansion and competition mandate scheduling agility and, more important, eliminate the inconveniences wrought by flight delays, missed connections and canceled legs.

If an American executive has finally secured a long-sought face-to-face meeting with a C-level executive in Moscow, a missed connection might kill the opportunity as swiftly as "Delayed" can flash from the "Departures" monitor.