$500 investment sends flight school sky high

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Apr 09, 2004 by Rombel, Adam

SYRACUSE - What does $500 get you? For Syracuse Executive Air Service Inc., the answer is likely to be a lot.

For that sum, the company, which operates a popular flight school at Syracuse Hancock International Airport, has just added a handy online tool to its Web site, allowing budding pilots and airplane renters to check plane and instructor availability and to schedule flights.,

The online, aircraft-reservation system, developed by the Morrisville State College Entrepreneurial Institute (MSCEI), is expected to increase usage of Syracuse Executive Air Service's airplanes by 10 percent, says Robert Belisario, chief flight instructor.

"It's making it far more efficient to manage the planes and flight schedules and easier for our students to schedule flights. So, the airplanes are utilized more. That makes dollars-andcents sense for us," says Belisario. "People will log on at home when it's convenient for them, and say, 'Hey, this airplane is available, so I'll do it."'

Syracuse Executive Air Service has 10 aircraft (four of which it owns directly), seven instructors, 55 active students, and 150 qualified renters.

Previously, student pilots and airplane renters would have to call Syracuse Executive Air Service's front-desk staff to inquire about the availability of planes and teachers. The assistants manning the phones would then have to leaf through a bulky binder to check for available dates and times.

"We've been looking for a long time to get our airplane scheduler out of that big ugly paper book," Belisario says. "it cuts down very substantially on the work of those people up front that answer the phones. They were always on the phone checking schedules" and can now work on other important matters, he adds.

The company's customers can now electronically check availability 24 hours a day, and book planes, the flight simulator, instructors, and a training-conference room even several years in advance.

Belisario says he's confident that the Web-site scheduler could also boost awareness and sales in Syracuse Executive Air Service's other lines of business, including charters and aircraft sales, maintenance, and storage.

"It's made the Web site more interactive. It means more hits and more people interested in all the other services we offer," he says.

The Morrisville State College Entrepreneurial Institute is a new program by the college that helps area small businesses and middle-market firms with information technology and business services such as Web-site and network development, security evaluations, and general computer consulting while providing students a chance to develop and showcase their skills.

Belisario says that to develop the online flight scheduler with a private company would have cost his firm "thousands and thousands of dollars."

To be sure, developing the program with the MSCEI would also cost more than $500 now, probably about $1,000, says Frederick Paine, assistant professor of computer technology at Morrisville State College's School of Business and a member of the MSCEI's board of directors. The institute charged Syracuse Executive Air Service less, because at the time it was a pilot program. Paine says he donated more than 100 hours of his own time into developing the online flight scheduler, which took about five weeks in total. Only the two Morrisville college students working on the project were paid, he says.

Paine is hopeful that the institute will be able to sell similar Internet programs to other businesses, such as car dealers and trucking companies, that need to track inventory and schedules.