Small airline offers big convenience

FLORIDA WEEKLY PHOTOS EVAN WILLIAMS Stefanie Ink, director of charter sales and new business development for ACI Charters, exits a nine-passenger Pilatus PC-12 turbro-prop aircraft that is one of nine aircraft in the charter company's fleet. ACI also has a jet and other smaller single-engine aircraft for charter. "I'm talking rich enough to own your own jet," Gordon Gecko (Michael Douglas) said to Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen) in the '80s Oliver Stone film, "Wall Street." It was Gecko's ultimate example of the freedoms of the super-rich.

But if you can't afford to buy one, chartering is probably the next best option. Aeronautical Charters Inc., operating out of Page Field in Fort Myers, provides that convenience: a plane, pilot and the chance to avoid long lines, delays, occasionally irate infants, security checkpoints and other staples of major airline travel.

"It's a jet powered limo, basically," said vice-president and pilot Glenn Frith, standing in ACI's hangar. "You can park right over there, walk 500 feet and get on a plane. Try doing that at (Southwest Florida International Airport)."

ACI Charters flies to more than 5,000 General Aviation airports in the U.S. as well as Mexico, South America and the Caribbean. The company flies to over 5,000 General Aviation airports nationwide plus Mexico, South America and the Caribbean, out of Page Field. It manages a fleet of six privately owned aircrafts and charters them out (the owners get a portion of the charter price). The planes and pilots are subject to strenuous standards, enforced by the FAA. That's not so when you "rent" an airplane, Frith said, which is something any happygo lucky Joe Stunt-Devil with a pilot's license may do.

"A lot of people rent airplanes and think they're chartering them," he said. "But they're really not."

Frith and partner Todd Carroll purchased the business in 2000, and moved it from Port Charlotte, where it had only one plane, to Page Field. Frith used to watch big jets soar in over U.S. 41 onto Page Field's runway, when he grew up in Fort Myers. They were operated by companies like Eastern and National. Frith knew he wanted to fly them, too, but dreams of working for a big company were diminished by the changing nature of the industry.

"Now, it's more like flying a Greyhound bus," Frith said.

At least on a small scale, Frith provides travelers with a more personal, maybe more old-time (and of course more costly) form of air travel.

It costs $2000 per flight hour to charter a jet; $1,200 gets you a single-propeller turbo; $375 per hour for a single-engine normally aspirated plane. That one is also used for sightseeing flights - tourists who want a birdseye view of Southwest Florida; also real-estate venturers looking for a piece of land.

The cost hasn't scared away clients, Frith said, and the slow economy hasn't affected business much. For wealthy clients, the downturn didn't cut too deeply into luxuries like private air travel; and for many business people, the expediency of private travel often outweighs the lower costs (but extra time) of flying on a major airline. And major carriers don't go to all the cities ACI goes to. The company used to carry mainly business travelers, Frith said, but now there are almost as many seeking leisure.

"A lot of our business travelers who fly with us during the week fly with us to the Keys or the Bahamas on the weekend," he said.

ACI handles everything: the initial phone call, on-flight catering, renting limos and cars once you're there. Many return client's whims are well known to ACI staff.

"We have a flight tomorrow where the pilot, before it even got out of my mouth, said, 'Oh, I better go get Dunkin Donuts coffee," travel coordinator Christ Hart said. "Because he knew that particular passenger wants that."

ACI has nine pilots, such as Mark Twomby. Working for a major airline wouldn't make sense for him, he said, because the airline industry is too volatile.

"There's just no guarantees anymore," he said. "You talk to pilots who've worked for three or four different carriers…

"This kind of flying appeals to me because it's different. You're going to different and new destinations all the time. Also it's a one-on-one with the people you're flying."

Some of his favorite destinations include the Keys and the Caribbean, because of the warm weather.

"You never have to take a jacket and if you're lucky, you get to overnight and enjoy it a little bit," he said.

But it's also exciting to fly into places like Teterboro, N. J., he said, which is a hub of corporate aviation. It's a complex air space, with lots of arrivals and departures and rules.

"It would be like driving into New York City," he said.

Frith said he plans to expand with another plane or two in the years to come, ones that can fly coast-to-coast non-stop. Or for that matter, to London. Maybe something with 30 seats or so, with the ability to transport a sports team or a whole lot of executives. But it won't likely go further than that.

"I don't wanna become a scheduled airline," Frith said. "I like the little nitch that we have."