At 73, Charlie Priester Keeps Charging Ahead ...

Charlie Priester at his company’s new state-of-the-art control center. … hey, it’s a global market so we’re going global, says Priester. Such is the philosophy of a man who knows something about running an airport, an FBO, and an international charter company. The Priester family sold the Pal-Waukee Airport some ten miles north of O’Hare International to the cities of Prospect Heights and Wheeling in 1986. Charlie subsequently sold his FBO to Signature Flight Support, with whom he is a subtenant today. At committee meetings for the National Air Transportation Association in D.C. in May, Charlie and I were at a reception talking with a few other folks. Charlie starts glowing about a new command center he’s put in place at his operation at what is now called Chicago Executive Airport. He brought in a local designer, Peter Theodore, and spent some $300,000 – “a little less than I thought,†he says. So, I told Charlie that the next time I was in Chicago I’d check it out, which happened last week. I remember the first time I visited the NetJets headquarters in Columbus, OH. It reminded me of working in a daily newspaper’s newsroom … rows of desks with an occasional cubicle. If you’ve seen Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post, that’s the picture. But that’s how many charter operations are configured … desks, phones, and computers. Walking into Priester’s new command center one is immediately struck by a sense of high tech, of modernity – of a place that dispatchers would love to come to work to every day. And that is what it’s all about – "the impression" – says Priester. “We do all the things we need to do from an FAA and legal standpoint, but the customer doesn’t see that. This is a high-tech, global business, and we wanted to create a high-tech mindset – NASA-like,†he explains. Priester even built an adjacent conference room with a window looking into the command center to reinforce the impression to customers and prospects. What’s fascinating to me about Charlie Priester is … here’s a man who has actually lived the aviation experience, from the mom and pop FBO and airport owner to a business aviation service provider, to the global charter provider he is today. That, and his enthusiasm level which reflects that of a young man 50 years younger who is just starting out on an aviation career. Thanks for reading. jfi