Air Charters Get Boost From Hot Economy, Local Congestion

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Air Charters Get Boost From Hot Economy, Local Congestion
JetSuiteX plane

The air charter business in Los Angeles County is booming as the number of flights operated by the 18 largest operators at area airports soared 36 percent last year, according to the Business Journal’s annual list of air charter companies.

The 18 companies on the list reported a cumulative total of 22,338 charter flight departures last year from nine Los Angeles area airports: Van Nuys, Hollywood-Burbank, Camarillo, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Los Angeles International, Hawthorne, Torrance and LaVerne.

That’s up from 16,346 departures in 2016.

“Business in general is booming right now and the charter business closely tracks the general performance of the economy,” said Alex Wilcox, chief executive of No. 2 JetSuite Inc., an Irvine-based air charter company.

The local increase in well ahead of the national pace for the sector, which saw a 10 percent increase in flights during the first half of 2017 compared with the same period a year earlier, according to the latest figures from Argus International Inc., an aviation research company in Columbus, Ohio.

Wilcox said one reason the Los Angeles market is outperforming the national average could be the level of traffic congestion on the ground in L.A.

“There’s added value for business executives in avoiding having to travel to LAX and navigate the horseshoe (terminal loop) there,” he said.

JetSuite’s 55 percent growth rate moved it into the No. 2 slot, not far behind longtime local industry leader Clay Lacy Aviation of Van Nuys, which saw a 9 percent increase last year.

JetSuite also is at the forefront of another change beginning to sweep through the air charter industry: business jet flights selling individual seats on flights instead of renting entire planes. Nearly half of JetSuite’s revenue now comes from its JetSuiteX unit, which sells individual seats, Wilcox said, offering ease of access at smaller airports closer to business activity centers, such as Silicon Beach and Silicon Valley.

“The sharing economy has come to the charter industry,” said Chad Trautvetter, news editor at Aviation International News in Venice, Fla.

A local change, meanwhile, is scrambling the local air charter industry: the shortening of the runway at Santa Monica Airport, cutting off most business jet travel. Wilcox said charter operators have diverted flights to other airports, chiefly Van Nuys, using helicopters to ferry some customers from Santa Monica Airport to other nearby airports.

“Local residents who thought they were getting rid of noisy jets now find themselves with even noisier helicopters using the airport,” Wilcox said.

– Howard Fine

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