Air charter company expands to Birmingham
Friday, August 05, 2005
CHARLES R. McCAULEY
News staff writer
Atlanta-based North Star Aviation Specialists LLC is expanding its air charter service to Birmingham, using planes that seat from five to eight passengers to reach East Coast cities and the Bahamas.
Spokesman Darren Callahan said the company initially will operate eight planes out of JetSouth, a fixed based operator at Birmingham International Airport. It will focus on attracting customers from Birmingham, Tuscaloosa and Montgomery - and Mobile eventually - for direct, private charters, he said.
Callahan said North Star already has gotten a couple of clients and made about four flights in the past week.
Three-fourths of North Star customers are business professionals, he said, adding there is a large group of Alabamians who take leisure trips and who travel to vacation or second homes. Football fans at the University of Alabama and University of Alabama at Birmingham also are potential customers, he said.
North Star, owned by Randy Jackson and Bruce McSwiggan, bases its aircraft in hangars at Tara Field south of Atlanta. Jackson started flying in 1971 at Fulton County, Callahan said. McSwiggan started when he was a small child flying with his dad.
For 27 years, the company has been providing air transportation to the traveling public through charter service under a Federal Aviation Administration Part 135 certificate.
Continued growth:
It has eight planes now and the two principals want to have 100 in the next three years as it moves to expand, Callahan said.
"We think Birmingham will become a big operation for us because Atlanta, I don't think we have space (to grow) at that airport.... You've got to have a lot of hangars for 100 airplanes," he said.
North Star probably will base an aircraft in Birmingham and station another set of pilots in the city, he said. He also said the company may assign a support crew to Birmingham.
The company also plans to offer fractional ownerships in its aircraft, deals in which customers can buy one-quarter share of a plane.
E-mail:
cmccauley@bhamnews.com