Pilot Service Center To Close At Pangborn
Dec. 16--EAST WENATCHEE -- The economy's nosedive has overtaken the Wenatchee Jet Center, which is $20,000 behind on its lease payments to Pangborn Memorial Airport and will close by year end.
The company, owned by East Wenatchee couple Alan and Joan Hunter since 1993, is like a combined rest stop and maintenance garage for private pilots flying through the region. It offers fueling services to all Pangborn aircraft and links the community to the aviation sector through flying lessons, scenic flights and other air services, including banner towing.
The Jet Center, known as a "fixed-base operator" or FBO in the aviation business, employs four full-time employees, including a mechanic and fuelers. Four part-time employees handle bookkeeping, flight instruction and aircraft rentals.
Airport personnel will take over fueling operations -- the largest and most crucial part of the business, Greg Phillips, airport manager, said Friday. The status of all the other services is uncertain, for now.
"They're one of the key tenants at the airport," Phillips said. "This isn't the end of the world, but it's a point of turbulence for the airport."
He added, "To lose the FBO means potentially losing those services. But we're not about to not have services. The airport is stepping in and will look at other options with the board."
The Jet Center, originally called "Wings of Wenatchee," has been behind on its lease payments since October 2009, Phillips said. Its long-term lease expired in late 2010 and had been operating on a one-year lease since.
Airport officials put out a bid for FBO services, but only two companies responded. The Jet Center was one of the two, but asked for debt forgiveness. The airport board turned down both offers as unsuitable for the airport's needs, Phillips said.
"We've just really suffered tremendously from the reduced number of aircraft coming into Wenatchee and of people who've wanted flight training," said Alan Hunter Friday. "The economic downturn has been pretty catastrophic."
He said they also took a big hit when the refueling business for wildfire tanker aircraft moved from Pangborn to Moses Lake.
Hunter said company revenues dipped 30 percent in 2009, the year after the Wall Street crash. They declined by another 5 to 10-percent in 2009. The decline had leveled off by last year, he said, but the company couldn't cut back enough to stop the red ink.
"We can't make it through another winter," he said.
The airport has been unwilling to give the company a new lease, he said. But without the lease, he's unable to get financing to restructure the company.
The closure will likely go unnoticed by most of the airport's commercial air travelers, Phillips said, but not by private pilots who choose to land at Pangborn, over smaller regional airports, because maintenance and other services are offered there as well as fueling.
He said the board will consider its options to replace all services. This could include possibly putting out a new bid, contracting with Executive Flight or another company at the airport, or providing the services itself.
Christine Pratt: 665-1173
Copyright 2011 - The Wenatchee World, Wash.