Small aircraft, big business

Vermont Business Magazine, Nov 01, 2004 by Kelley, Kevin

Private and charter flight activity is soaring at some Vermont airports, powered by a resurgence corporate air travel as well as by the state's allure to wealthy tourists and second-home owners.

"Our jet traffic has been booming," says Tom Trudeau, manager of the Rutland State Airport. He estimates that a dozen or more private, corporate and charter jets take off or land at Rutland on a weekday during foliage season. Several singleengine passenger planes arrive and depart as well. Most of these aircraft carry passengers commuting to vacation homes in and near Killington as well as visitors who may stay at a local lodge for a couple of nights.

"Those who are moneyed have given up on public transportation," Trudeau says. "Security hassles have made it more tedious to travel by commercial air."

The growth of private air services can be further attributed to the advent of fractional ownership arrangements, Trudeau suggests. It is becoming more common for individuals to buy a share of a private airplane for occasional personal use, just as some Vermonters buy timeshares in Caribbean condos.

Private and charter flights into and out of Rutland, the largest of the 10 stateowned airports, may become even more frequent as a result of a $250,000 marketing campaign now in the planning phase. The airport was awarded a $240,000 federal grant in September, matched by $13,000 in local funds, with the aim of promoting the Rutland area as a tourism and business destination.

Coffee Connection

Heritage Flight, a charter airline based at Burlington International Airport, has been growing as a result of the same factors that are driving the upsurge in private air travel. "The buzzword for commercial flying used to be 'hassle'," says Heritage marketing director Larry Abrams. "Now it's 'nightmare.

Heritage's heightened appeal to business and leisure fliers also reflects the company's investments in marketing and the expansion of its fleet of jets and turbo-props, Abrams says.

The airline operated only two planes until 2002, when its family ownership sold the business to Robert Stiller, president of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters. Heritage now flies seven planes, including a recently purchased nine-passenger jet that can fly nonstop to destinations in Europe, the Caribbean and up and down the West Coast.

Most of Heritage's Vermont passengers make shorter flights, typically to the New York and Boston areas, Abrams says. He estimates that corporate travel accounts for 60 percent of the airline's business, with personal flights making up another third.

Abrams describes the balance as "reactive" travel. He cites the example of a company dispatching a maintenance team for emergency repairs of a critical piece of machinery in Vermont or at a location hundreds of miles from the Burlington airport.

While Vermont's largest passenger charter carrier reports strong but unspecified growth in the past couple of years, officials in Montpelier can only guess at the number of private planes using the 18 airports scattered around the state.

Despite the heightened airport vigilance throughout the United States in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, it is still possible for planes to take off and land at several of Vermont's airports without notification to state authorities.

Only a couple of the private, municipal and state airports are staffed beyond daytime business hours, and a few have no daily oversight at all.

John H Boylan State Airport in Island Pond, for example, is monitored by a Vermont Agency of Transportation official based several miles away at Caledonia County State Airport in Lyndon. The Island Pond facility has a turf runway that is left unplowed in the winter but that remains open to ski-equipped aircraft. There were about 200 take-offs and landings at the remote airport in 2001, according to a state study.

"We don't get information on private travel unless a pilot signs in," says Jason Owen, aviation project manager for the Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans). But generally reliable figures are supplied for the airports that do have managers, Owen notes. He estimates that private air travel is growing at a moderate pace on a statewide basis.

Private and charter flight activity has a substantial impact on local economies around the state, according to a 2002 VTrans study. Total estimated business revenues, including wages, generated by public-use Vermont airports ranged from $243 million for Burlington International Airport, to $11 million for William H. Morse State Airport in Bennington (the second-largest sum reported), to $53,000 for the Boylan State Airport in Island Pond. Over 9,500 Vermonters owe their jobs to aviationrelated operations, the VTrans study says.

Morrisville- Stowe is among he busiest of Vermont's state airports. Heritage Flight uses the facility regularly, and about 20 other planes take off or land there on a day when the weather is good, says airport manager David Whitcomb. Much of this traffic is associated with the area's resorts. Businessrelated travel accounts for a smaller but significant share of activity at Morrisville-Stowe, says Whitcomb, who also manages a glider company based at the airport.