More business jets and the jobs that support them will be arriving at Westchester County Airport this year, as a fractional jet charter company will relocate operations to the airstrip.
Flexjet, a Richardson, Texas-based private jet operator, will move its operations from Teterboro Airport in New Jersey to Westchester County Airport”™s Hangar F. Large portions of the moving costs will be defrayed through $5,150,000 of bond financing as well as tax incentives from the Westchester County Industrial Development Agency.
- A Flexjet Challenger 300. Photo courtesy Flexjet
“Our bolstered presence at the Westchester County Airport is a way to serve our customers better throughout the entire tristate region,” Flexjet CFO Trevor Mashburn told the Business Journal in an email. “Because of its larger hangar and ramp capacity, Westchester County Airport will allow us to have more aircraft at the ready for dispatch in very close proximity for our customers regardless of where they are in the tristate region. If an owner desires to fly out of, say, Teterboro or East Hampton, our enhanced capacity in White Plains will allow us to serve them better.”
According to Flexjet”™s application for funding, 20 temporary construction jobs will be created during a four-month renovation of the hangar facility, which will include enlarging the hangar doors to a height of 27 feet to accommodate larger aircraft and renovating and remodeling half of the office space into a customer lounge. Mashburn said that Hangar F will become the East Coast maintenance facility for the Flexjet fleet, which includes Bombardier, Learjet, Embraer and Gulfstream business jets.
“A meaningful portion of Flexjet”™s customer base resides within 30 to 45 minutes of Westchester County Airport,” Flexjet”™s application for IDA funding stated. “Renovating and modernizing Hangar F will entice more of Flexjet”™s customers to use the more modern and technologically up-to-date facilities at the County Airport instead of using competing airports in the region with inferior facilities.”
“Westchester”™s Industrial Development Agency understood our need for expanded facilities in the New York metropolitan area,” Mashburn said. “The financing made available through the IDA complements our investment of capital as we build the kind of facility required in order to serve greater New York better than any other fractional private jet provider.”
Flexjet”™s application for funding noted that greater use by the private jet customer base gives the county a chance to “showcase all it has to offer to this important consumer group that generally comprises decision makers, private business owners and successful leaders in business and finance.”
The move is expected to bring 35 high-wage permanent jobs from Teterboro to Westchester County Airport, with Flexjet”™s employment levels at the airport growing by 10 percent each year for the next two to three years and creating an additional 55 permanent jobs over the next five years. Flexjet will add 10 new jobs in the “large cabin program,” a number it expects to double in the first three years the company operates at the airfield.
“Overall, these will be highly technical jobs that involve maintaining, servicing and flying aircraft,” Mashburn said. “This includes everyone from aircraft mechanics to pilots to the owner services personnel who will staff our passenger lounge.”
Flexjet”™s fractional jet ownership is a business concept where individuals pay for a certain amount of annual flight time on a private jet in 50-hour increments on aircraft owned, operated and maintained by the corporation. In addition to fractional jet ownership and management, Flexjet also operates traditional charter service.
The move from Teterboro to Westchester by Flexjet will add to the private jet presence at the airport. NetJets, the fractional jet company owned by Warren Buffett”™s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., also operates at Westchester County Airport. At the launch of a new line of aircraft last summer, CEO Jordan Hansell told the Business Journal that NetJets had carried more than 300,000 passengers on more than 87,000 flights to and from the airport. It has 65 employees at the airport.
According to an email from Britta Vander Linden, a communications specialist and economic development liaison in the county executive”™s office, there were 57,566 corporate jet takeoffs and landings out of Westchester County Airport in 2014.
“Westchester County Airport is already one of Flexjet”™s top five airports for takeoffs and landings each year,” Mashburn said. “Flight activity will certainly rise as our new facilities come online.”
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