Jet Source spreads its wings, expands operations to Nevada

May 16--CARLSBAD -- Business is soaring at Jet Source, a company that caters to the charter and corporate jet set at McClellan-Palomar Airport.

The company celebrated the anniversary of its 10th year in business on Tuesday evening and announced plans to add a new jet service facility outside of Las Vegas and to begin selling time-share-style ownership in small jets.

Richard McWilliam, founder of the local sports card company Upper Deck, started Jet Source with two jets and remains the owner.

Now Jet Source is a hub of aviation activity. The company can provide hangar space for as many as 30 jets and maintain them with a Federal Aviation Administration certified repair station. It also operates 12 charter planes and offers concierge-style service for its well-heeled customers, Frank Milian, president and chief operating officer, said Wednesday.

"You literally can drive your car right next to the airplane," he said. "We load your baggage, valet your car, and within five minutes from the time you arrive, you're ready to go. The convenience factor is incredible. You go at your schedule."

This service is not for the take-your-shoes-off crowd who must go through the nation's security checkpoints. Many of Jet Source's customers are business leaders and celebrities, whose names are discreetly checked against Homeland Security's "no-fly" list.

In the last five years, the company's annual revenues have more than doubled to $30 million. It employs 106 people and operates 24 hours a day, every day of the year.

Milian says that the business is driven in part by the hassle and inconvenience of flying on commercial airlines -- an unpleasantness he said that he recently endured. "I thank them every time."

And for some businesses, it makes sense to charter a jet for a last-minute meeting. It costs about $4,200 for a jet carrying as many as eight passengers to fly to San Francisco and back in one day. "We can normally dispatch an aircraft in four hours or less," Milian said.

The company plans to open a second facility in Henderson, Nev., a reliever airport outside of Las Vegas, in 2008, with two, 35,000-square-foot hangars and a terminal with exclusive amenities.

It is also rolling out a new service, known as fractional jet ownership -- a kind of time share for private aircraft. Milian said the company expects to sell one-eighth shares (equal to about 100 hours of flight time annually) in a new light jet, made by General Atomics in La Jolla and costing $3.5 million each. The planes, known as VLJs for Very Light Jets, carry as many as seven people and are best suited to trips of 500 to 1,000 miles.

"It's going to make it more affordable for more people to fly on private aircraft," Milian said. Jet Source will begin showing mock-ups of the jets in September. The jets could be certified by the FAA in 2009, he said.

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