ACI Jet has landed a newly-based Falcon 900 at its John Wayne Airport FBO location in a most unusual way- through the efforts of two area sixth graders who met on a school field trip to ACI Jet. Through conversation, school mates Gavin and Jake realized they both shared an aviation connection at a young age: One is the son of a Manager at ACI Jet, whereas the other is grandson to John Dahlberg, an aviation entrepreneur and operator of a Falcon 900. During the school field trip to ACI Jet, the plucky duo began a conversation about relocating Dahlberg’s Falcon, which at the time was based at Long Beach Airport, to Santa Ana.
According to ACI Jet President William “Bill” Borgsmiller, what started as a light-hearted conversation between the young entrepreneurs, “Quickly became very real when Gavin and Jake were granted the authority by the respective parents and grandparents to make the deal happen,” and negotiate terms without involvement from ACI Jet or the aircraft owner, both of whom agreed they would abide by the boys’ deal points. Instead of direct involvement, ACI Jet and the aircraft owner merely played a support role to the boys through the process, providing requested documentation to the sixth grade team to finalize the hangar agreement. When the deal was ready, ACI Jet held a signing ceremony for the boys to commemorate the event. Joe Daichendt, General Manager of ACI Jet at John Wayne Airport noted that “For Gavin and Jake, the signing ceremony helped illustrate the parents and grandparents truly had not been involved in the hangar deal behind the scenes, because it was first time we actually met the client in person.”
Former Second-District Orange County Supervisor Jim Silva, who attended the signing ceremony between ACI Jet and the newly based tenant, added to the excitement for the sixth grade deal-making team. Said Silva of the event, “While a school field trip to an airport is anything but run-of-the-mill, Gavin and Jake took the opportunity to learn more about aviation and airports to heart, and made something special happen for ACI Jet, the aircraft owner and Orange County in the process. It’s inspiring and instructive, and it demonstrates what can come out of an education partnership between our schools and the aviation community.”
The Falcon 900 joins a number of aircraft to flock to ACI Jet at John Wayne Airport in recent months, including a Gulfstream G650, two G550s, and a Bombardier Challenger 604. With a third G550 on the way, ACI Jet estimates some $150M has been added to the tax role for Orange County in the last four months alone.
