(continued)

Ken Ross: There are a number of reasons for that involving both the aircraft and our customer base. On the aircraft side, the Eclipse 500 used under an FAA Part 135 for-hire certificate has to land on a runway at least 60 percent longer than those mandated for typical owner/operator aircraft. That means you need runways of 3500 feet or more even though the aircraft could land in 2800.

Also, in the Midwest during the winter a VLJ, depending on temperature or weight, might encounter difficulty landing on a runway contaminated by snow, ice or rain ... you basically need bad weather runway maintenance capability equal to that at major airports.

Another reason we don't service a lot of general airports with Q is because our clients typically expect to go into airports that have what you might call high-rent amenities like ground car service, proximity to downtown metropolitan areas, 24-hour jet fuel availability so the aircraft can be ready to go back on demand, etc.

ATF: Since you were kind enough to bring up your clients. Who are they?

Ken Ross: That's interesting. The majority of our fliers are corporate middle managers, CEOs or COOs at smaller companies, bankers, lawyers, accountants ... business people who need to move from Point A to Point B efficiently and come back quickly, usually the same day or early the next morning.

But we are noticing our client base enlarging because of the VLJs' lower operating costs. Q Service has definitely opened up the market to a much broader group ... more middle managers, more passengers who used to fly first class commercial.

The typical profile of a first-class passenger may be a five-million-dollar-net-worth individual and we're getting more of those types of people because they're seeking a more efficient mode of travel with which to go about their business.

ATF: When you say "getting more" are you talking a few more passengers or a lot more passengers?

Ken Ross: We have seen a tremendous demand for the Eclipse Q service. The main challenge we have is meeting that demand with an aircraft that is not certified for known icing and is limited in its avionics capability.

Over at least the next several months, there are trips we will have to hand off to our turboprop fleet and our light-jet fleet because the Eclipse is temporarily grounded because of potential icing.

There are also other challenges the Eclipse has to surmount before we can get full functionality and efficiency out of it. Even with the latest Avio NG avionics package, the software to implement the FMS (Flight Management System), moving map, and GPS isn't available yet and there is still no couple approaches on the autopilots. We've also been told that weather radar may be out there somewhere, but we haven't seen it.

The functionality that has been added -- the Auto Direction Finder (ADF) and, I think, Distance Measuring Equipment (DME) -- is nice to have, but there are still a lot of limitations.

ATF: Can you give us an example of what it would cost for a company to "Q Ship" three managers from Chicago to the East Coast for a sales meeting?

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