In the world of business aviation in the San Fernando Valley, the big players with the big names based at Van Nuys Airport get the attention and the media coverage. And that’s just the way AvJet Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Marc J. Foulkrod likes it. Based at the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, the aircraft management and sales company goes about its business while maintaining a cloak of secrecy for its clients. Even the company’s newsletter won’t divulge who the company serves. A story in the winter 2005 edition announced that AvJet got an account with the “largest international company in the world” but didn’t give any names. “We like to think we are the low-key company,” Foulkrod said. “We have a lot of name recognition-type clients who prefer that anonymity.” But low-key doesn’t mean no growth. In June, the company had a lease agreement approved by the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority to construct a new hangar to go with the four it already has at the airport that it subleases from Mercury Air Center. The 54,000 square-foot hangar will house a 737 Boeing Business Jet owned by Shangri La Entertainment, a motion picture production company. The new building will also include up to 10,000 square-feet of office space. The hangar, which Foulkrod said would be completed by December 2007, and other improvements are expected to cost a minimum of $5 million. Airport authority Commissioner Charlie Lombardo said the lease is a plus for both the city of Burbank which will realize tax revenue and the airport because of the improvements that AvJet will make for years to come. “That’s a very nice plane, and very quiet,” Lombardo said of the Boeing jet. While the company provides charter service with its jets when not being used by clients, aircraft sales, especially overseas, are a major part of the company’s business plan. AvJet recently did a deal between a Chilean aircraft owner and a Japanese buyer. It has also sold aircraft in Europe and India. Russia, however, seems to be the hot market, which Foulkrod attributes to access to greater wealth by individuals and companies. Foreign businesses purchase airplanes for the same reason that American companies and business people have their own private jets as a means to get away from traveling on commercial jets and dealing with the inherent hassles of security, canceled or delayed flights or traveling at an inconvenient time. “They’d rather pay to have their own than go through all that turmoil,” Foulkrod said. AvJet is among the handful of general aviation players found at Bob Hope, the others being Million Air, Mercury Air Center and TWC Aviation. Being at an airport with a heavy commercial use can have its advantages in the amount of security and the discretion it allows. “When you have a client coming in and they need that level of security I think it’s quite good here,” Foulkrod said. But Million Air’s Harold Lee, who operates fixed base operations at Van Nuys and Bob Hope, said the Burbank airfield has its advantages and disadvantages. Although there is only a short distance between the two airports, passengers coming from the west Valley and west side of Los Angeles prefer not to take the Ventura (101) Freeway to get to Burbank and fly out of Van Nuys instead, Lee said. “You find a lot of the studios and anything to do with the east side (of the Valley and Los Angeles) and downtown have an interest in the Burbank area,” Lee added. Also, general aviation has to compete with commercial aircraft with takeoffs and landings at Bob Hope and depending on the wind direction only one of the two runways can be used for landings, Lee said. But there is less competition at Burbank as the airport administration understands that the flight-based operators need to make money, Lee said.
