The folks at SkyQuest Charters watched college football
this past weekend with one thing on their minds: business.
The Reno-based air charter company is as eager as any
Notre Dame alumnus to find out what teams are competing
in the 27 bowl games that will be played between now and
Jan. 3.
In fact, they've been spending the last few weeks studying
the results like seasoned bettors trying to guess which
teams have the best chance.
That's so SkyQuest Charters can be the first to call with
a bid to fly the teams and their entourages to the big events.
During the season, SkyQuest flies the football teams of
the University of Nevada, Reno, Fresno State and University
of California, Berkeley, to most of their away games. But
the bowl games are an even bigger business opportunity.
"With the regular games they only fly the team," said
Jimmy Duke, a retired pilot and airline executive who finds
the planes SkyQuest leases for its charter flights. "But with
the bowl games, they take the team, the band and a bunch
of alumni."
SkyQuest can supply everything related to the flight,
including the plane, pilot and crew, which are leased from a
list of airlines, as well as baggage handling and catering.
"We supply what I call athletic meals," said Duke "You
know, healthy food and Gatorade."
College football, both the regular season contracts and
the bowl games, represents about 20 percent of SkyQuest's
business. The bulk of its business comes from charter flights
during the spring and summer that fly high school and college
students to vacation spots.
Last year, before Sept. 11, SkyQuest flew 83 flights to
Cancun and 80 to Puerto Vallarta from Houston, Dallas,
Atlanta, Chicago and Sacramento, for a total of 600 flight
hours.
But like all airline-related businesses, things have
changed since the terrorist's attacks.
"The numbers are way off this year," said Kevin
Gustafson, founder, owner and president. In previous years
the company has run three aircraft, fully loaded, during the
spring break season. This year the company ran one plane,
and it was never fully booked, said Gustafson.
In past years Skyquest has run holiday charters out of
New York City, as many as 27 flights from the city to the
Caribbean between Thanksgiving and President's Day
weekend in February. This year, said Gustafson, the company
has just two flights, one during Christmas and another
for New Year's, flying from the Big Apple to the islands.
To make matters worse, the beleaguered commercial airlines
now are vying for some of SkyQuest's business.
"We're competing more and more with scheduled air,"
said Gustafson. "We never used to compete with them for
the bowl games."
So SkyQuest is looking to expand into new markets,
such as music tours, around-the-world programs and incentive
travel. The latter arises when a large corporation charters
a plane to fly its top salespeople to Bermuda, for example,
as reward in an incentive program.
Gustafson originally established the company five years
ago to do a program for the casinos that would fly tours into
Reno. But Gustafson said the casinos don't have a unified
direction; some cater to people on the East Coast, others to
Californians. So he never got a casino program off the
ground.
It's unlikely SkyQuest will get into the business of chauffeuring
high rollers or wealthy Lake Tahoe residents, either.
The company specializes in larger planes, from 737s to
DC10s, that carry between 122 to 379 passengers.
The typical ad hoc client, which represents about 10 per
cent of the company's business, is a tour operator looking to
transport a group of 300 people who want to be on the
same flight. For that, charters are the only option.
Before Sept. 11, SkyQuest's business was booming.
According to Gustafson, business grew between 80 percent
to 200 percent every year until this year.
But for now, with the bowl games around the corner,
business is back on track.
"Between now and January 3rd or 4th," said Duke, "we'l
be really busy."
