Marketing & Client Services Director

Lisa Valladares

It has been one year since the World Health Organization’s declared COVID-19 a pandemic and life as we know it changed. Private aviation has been among the industries profoundly affected. As people have sought ways to travel safely and securely, the benefits of noncommercial air transportation have become ever clearer. The world’s most experienced private-jet operator, Clay Lacy Aviation, reports a 46% uptick in inquiries over the past 12 months from people who have never owned a jet.
“The need to travel has not changed, but options have narrowed,” says Brian Kirkdoffer, CEO, Clay Lacy Aviation. “Private aircraft have always been a means to save time and solve problems – for example, how to get your team or family from Point A to Point B ­and perhaps on to Points C and D, even within the same day. The people reaching out to us are looking for air travel that minimizes risk and maximizes efficiency. And that’s what we offer.”
<h2>Choosing the Right Management Partner</h2>
It stands to reason that Clay Lacy Aviation would be the provider called. It helped create the very concept of private jet travel, forever transforming people’s view of time and place. Its founding in 1968 made it the first jet charter and executive jet management company west of the Mississippi river. Proximity to Hollywood led to such high-profile customers as Frank Sinatra and Johnny Carson, whose fame helped popularize the nascent industry.
Fast forward to today, Clay Lacy Aviation has strategically grown its presence well beyond its state-of-the-art headquarters in Los Angeles to include an ever-growing East Coast footprint that now includes an FAA approved repair station and hangar complex in Connecticut, offices in New York City, to multiple aircraft throughout the Southeast. Now with a presence in more than thirty cities across the U.S., the company’s services range from private aircraft management and jet charter to fixed-base operations (FBO) and maintenance services.
The complexities of aircraft operations and management position Clay Lacy Aviation as the management provider of choice for individuals and corporations alike. Its proven track record, stability over 53-years, unrivaled expertise and data analytics offer peace of mind to even the most exacting customers ­– and to those new to all that aircraft ownership entails. Clay Lacy Aviation’s knowledgeable team functions as a personal, 24-7 flight department with experts in each aspect of the operation.
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<h2>Reducing Expenses, Generating Revenue</h2>
Clay Lacy Aviation’s Part 91 support services help reduce the cost of aircraft ownership while relieving owners of the hassles and headaches of managing aircraft themselves. Options are many. Operational control, for example, can be turned over to Clay Lacy Aviation or owners can maintain that control with Clay Lacy Aviation working alongside to seamlessly optimize everything from FAA regulatory compliance and financial oversight to flight crew management and flight scheduling and dispatching. If aircraft owners want to offset fixed operating costs by chartering their aircraft when not in use, Clay Lacy Aviation can deftly manage the process, working under Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) for Part 135 aircraft to deliver consistent charter revenue to offset expenses by up to 80%.
“Our role is based in advocacy on behalf of the customer,” says Joe Barber, Clay Lacy Aviation SVP Commercial Operations. “As aircraft manager, we serve as trusted stewards whose every action can withstand the closest scrutiny. We earned our reputation for honest, fair dealings over more than five decades of serving our clients.”
Clay Lacy Aviation’s size and clout result in a wide range of owner benefits, including lower operating costs and higher dispatch reliability. Its voluntary carbon-offset program gives sustainability-minded owners the ability to offset aircraft CO2 emissions for mere pennies per gallon of purchased fuel. Its support for Gold Standard-certified projects has helped create more than $20.5 billion in shared value for climate action and sustainable development.
<h2>Crews that Ensure You Fly with Confidence</h2>
Flight crews – pilots, attendants and technicians – are among the most obvious advantages of using a third-party manager. Recruiting, hiring, retaining and training top-notch crew are paramount. Clay Lacy Aviation has the distinction of having flown for six U.S. Presidents and the British Prime minister, so it understands safety, security and service at the highest level. Clay Lacy Aviation leverages its extensive referral network, built up over many years. Its proven process for attracting, vetting and hiring quality crew members is both rigorous and effective.
“We conclude the interview process with the aircraft owner,” says Barber. “Pilots in command and owners need to have rapport. We’re not only looking for the best skills in the cockpit, but for well-rounded, confident communicators. Pilots must engender trust in their passengers. For instance, it’s not always easy to tell the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a big-name athlete or major star that flight plans need to be adjusted to accommodate bad weather. Yet it’s essential those conversations take place and that safety-first decisions result. Our pilots understand they are empowered and bear 100% responsibility for go or no-go decisions.”
The company’s recruitment methodology, proprietary compensation and quality-of-life data analysis led to the highest probability of crew retainment. Regular flight training includes full-motion flight simulators, onboard emergency and extended overwater training. ARGUS has awarded Clay Lacy Aviation its Platinum rating, its highest honor. Factory-trained maintenance technicians perform a wide range of services from light-line maintenance and heavy airframe inspections to avionics and cabin entertainment upgrades and repairs. An in-house parts inventory valued at more than $3.4 million stands at the ready for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services and aircraft-on-the-ground (AOG) mobile support teams.
Cabin attendants set the tone for the flight experience. Do they customize the onboard experience based on the time of day, purpose of the flight, and passenger preferences? Are they highly experienced and resourceful? Do they undergo additional training on food preparation and etiquette? At Clay Lacy Aviation those questions get answered with an emphatic yes. Privacy, hard to maintain in a world where every phone is also a camera and conduit to social media, is strictly maintained.
“All Clay Lacy Aviation crew members remain tight-lipped to the outside world about the identities of their passengers,” says Kirkdoffer. “We’re here to provide the highest level of safety, service and value coupled with the absolute best experience possible.”
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