The Air Group, a Van Nuys-based full service private aircraft management firm, has added six new private jets to its nationwide fleet. The aircraft, primarily corporate owned, will also be available for charter on a regional, transcontinental and international basis through The Air Group’s eight private aviation facilities in the United States and Tokyo. The new planes will push the company’s total fleet of planes to above 50, making it one of the largest companies based at Van Nuys Airport. “All the airplanes were purchased primarily to enable the business executives and managers to move around the U.S. and the world efficiently, securely and productively. Airline service has deteriorated to such a point that it is far more expensive in terms of the cost of the execs’/managers’ time, than it is to pay for the airplanes,” Jon Winthrop, the company’s chairman of the board and CEO, said. “Today, security is an issue, and private transportation makes the entire security concern go away. In addition, the charter business is good again so our owners are able to offset a portion of their operating costs through chartering the airplanes when they are not using them.” The new planes include a Gulfstream GIVSP based in New York; a Gulfstream GIV based alternatively at Van Nuys and Tokyo’s Haneda Airport; a Hawker 800XPI based at Van Nuys; a Hawker 800XP based in Denver; a Falcon 900C based in San Jose; and a Cessna Citation SII, based in Honolulu. But this recent expansion is just the start of Winthrop’s big plans for The Air Group. With the company’s revenues up 16 to 17 percent over last year, the company is clearly in growth mode. “We expect to increase our fleet by two to three more aircraft in Van Nuys this year, and hopefully three or four more airplanes for our Midwest and East Coast business groups,” Winthrop said. “Our biggest expansion plan now is in Teterboro, New Jersey (Teterboro is the corporate airport that serves Manhattan and the metropolitan New York area). We are constructing a major hangar and office complex that will be ready for occupancy in the fall of 2006.” According to Winthrop, the construction of the hanger in Teterboro will take up much of the company’s time and focus in 2006. But building new facilities on the East Coast isn’t the only thing that Winthrop has in store for 2006. The company’s co-founder also plans for a major push in the Japanese marketplace, which he believes to represent a great deal of potential.
