Aviation Business Journal 3rd Quarter 2012 - 29

West Star Aviation
Continued from page 27

He explained that the Grand Junction facility does “essentially the same work as East Alton,” with on-wing, line level, and some major engine work also provided by Dallas Airmotive. Grand Junction is a specialist in landing gear and accessory overhauls for Challengers and Hawkers. Other airframes on which the company specializes at this location are Learjets, Citations, Gulfstreams, the Embraer business jet family, and the Cessna Conquest turboprop. Operating the sole FBO at Grand Junction Regional Airport, West Star Aviation’s 3,500-square-foot, twolevel terminal includes a lobby and offices. Also an EPIC Aviation dealer, the FBO’s underground fuel farm provides storage capacity of 103,000 gallons of jet fuel, and 33,000 gallons of avgas. Four 5,000-gallon trucks dispense jet fuel, while a single 2,200-gallon truck is used for avgas. All line service staff is NATA Safety 1st certified. Despite the recession, which seriously impacted the general aviation industry, and the slow economic recovery, West Star Aviation has generally been in a growth mode. “Ten years ago when we bought Premier Air Center, the company had $5 million in sales, and 93 employees,” Rasberry reported “Now, we have between 500 and 600 employees, and are projecting $155 million in sales for 2012.” Rasberry added that a major shift in business aircraft MRO spending has emerged since the pit of the recession in 2009 and 2010. “At the time, the operators were not spending any more money on their aircraft

Maintenance hangar at ALN

than they had to,” he said. “They were putting money into mandatory checks and inspections, but not doing much discretionary spending. But last year, that began to change, particularly during the last quarter of 2011, when we began to notice an increase in prebuy inspections and modifications. That has continued into this year.” According to Rasberry, modification and upgrade work has increased as more operators have decided to hold onto their aircraft for a longer time period, or because they have just purchased a used aircraft. “Right now, our facilities are fully booked, with more interior work, paint and avionics upgrades than we have seen in years past,” he said. “In fact, the last two years have been profitable for us, and I think we’ll continue to show a profit for 2012.” Both Rasberry and Swehla are quick to credit the company’s success to its employees. “We have great production people at all of our locations, and they build relationships with our customers,” said Swehla.

“You have to understand that this is a relationship-based business. Our job, then, is to get the customer into the hangar for the first time. After that, the good service and work that we do is going to sell the customer on giving us ongoing jobs.” The company’s customer relations are managed through heavy, oneon-one interaction with totally open communication. “We try to live by no surprises,” Rasberry stated. But this is not to say that the company is immune to the same challenges facing much of the business aircraft MRO industry. Rasberry noted: “I would say that getting qualified people is going to be one of our two biggest issues. The average age of an A&P mechanic today is about 56 or 57 years old, and there are not a lot of people coming in to take their place. Along with this, the big unknown is fuel costs. Nobody really knows how high fuel will have

Continued on page 31

Aviation Business Journal | 3rd Quarter 2012

Aviation Business Journal 3rd Quarter 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aviation Business Journal 3rd Quarter 2012