At NBAA, Business is Good

More than 106 aircraft were on display at the sold-out Static Display located at the Fulton County Airport. Among the aircraft on display: very light jets (VLJs), the Boeing BBJ, and the Airbus 318.

More than 1000 aircraft accessed Atlanta’s Fulton County Brown field for the week. Hill Aircraft, which previously hosted the Static Display in 1989 and 1994, handled 707 of the aircraft the week of the show. The FBO normally handles 100 to 200 aircraft per week.

“We kind of knew what we were getting into,” explains Larry Westbrook, president of Hill Aircraft. “Back in ’94 we had less equipment and manpower. We learned the value of good communication.”

To handle the activity, Hill Aircraft pulled people from all departments and had some 60 employees working line service for the show, including 22 additional folks — some alumni of Hill Aircraft and employees of three other FBOs. Some adjustments were made to the facilities to accommodate everyone — most notably the reconfiguring of one hangar for Hertz rental car operations, which rented 298 vehicles for the week.

Bbusiness neighbors at the airport also helped out, loaning much-needed ramp space. “Our corporate neighbors really came through for us,” says Westbrook. Chevron Aviation and the Hiller Group provided additional fuel trucks, back-up tank farm pumping, and other support for the show.

Eagle Tug provided an additional large Tug (TT-12).

Planning for the show began in January, and Westbrook says he’s satisfied that everything went smoothly, primarily achieving the set goals of “nobody hurt, no damage, and nobody mad.” Plus, he adds, “It’s great publicity.”

It’s estimated that approximately 80-85 percent of NBAA traffic made it out to the Static Display.