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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Passion for Jets Runs in the Family

Growing up in an aviation family, Sarah Oberman learned early about the benefits of private jet travel.

Her parents, after all, founded Channel Islands Aviation in 1976, the first fixed-base operator at Camarillo Airport offering fuel sales, hangar space, flight training and aircraft sales and maintenance. 

She would become the chief marketing officer for the family business, which was sold to new owners in May, after her parents retired, and was involved with charter operations at the company from March 2016 until earlier this year.

Oberman’s passion and decades of experience in the aviation industry led her to found he own charter brokerage business, TruNorth Jets Inc., in January. 

Since launching the company, she has brought in about $2 million in revenue, Oberman, 38, said. 

While offering similar services as other air charter operators at Camarillo and Van Nuys airports, she tries to differentiate TruNorth through its attention to detail and providing a high-end service. 

“I am very good at what I do, and I take great pride in my work,” Oberman said. “No detail is too small.” 

As the sole employee of TruNorth, Oberman does not give the small stuff to an assistant. “I handle it all,” she continued. “I am shopping the market (for aircraft) to scheduling trips to the catering.”

But she doesn’t just have close relationships with her clients. She does the same with the aircraft operators that she leases the planes from. She works with operators at Camarillo, Van Nuys and Santa Barbara airports, she said. 

She can get a variety of aircraft – from a light jet to take passengers to Las Vegas or the Bay area to a super-midsize Cessna Citation Longitude for a flight to New York, or she will procure a Gulfstream IV for clients traveling to the Caribbean.

“My service is reflected in their product, so it is really important to me to make sure the operator I am using has a certain level of professionalism that I expect,” Oberman explained.

She has about a dozen active clients right now, mostly in Southern California, with a few scattered around the U.S. All of them have come from referrals. 

“I was slowly able to build my client base based on those who fly with me and see the level of service that I provide,” Oberman added. 

Hannah Madans Welk
Hannah Madans Welk
Hannah Madans Welk is a managing editor at the Los Angeles Business Journal and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. She previously covered real estate for the Los Angeles Business Journal. She has done work with publications including The Orange County Register, The Real Deal and doityourself.com.

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