TAG U.S. Sees Strong First Half Growth

San Francisco-based TAG Aviation USA has added more than a dozen jets to its managed fleet of about 125 aircraft since the first of the year, and reports that revenues thus far in 2002 are up by about a fifth over last year's tallies.

"Three of the last four months we've exceeded our budget for charter," TAG U.S. CEO Jake Cartwright told Show News on the eve of EBACE 2002.

TAG U.S. employs about 600 people as compared to approximately 220 TAG employees in Europe, most of them at the parent TAG Aviation SA headquarters here in Geneva. It also accounts for about 125 of approximately 150 TAG aircraft worldwide. Among the new U.S. aircraft are three Challengers based in San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta; a Falcon 900EX and a Challenger 601 for San Francisco Bay Area charters; an Astra (now the Gulfstream 100) based in Teterboro; and a Citation Ultra in Virginia.

Cartwright declines to name his aircraft management customers, other than to say that many of them are "household-name"-type companies, primarily in the San Francisco area and the U.S. Northeast and Northwest. Most, he says, would rather not publicize their use of business aircraft in challenging economic times.

TAG U.S. has also seen increased activity in aircraft sales, following "no activity for us in the fourth quarter," Cartwright says. Deals have finally begun to close, he reports, after a period of much talk and little action. That said, "it is definitely more a listing market than a buying market right now."

"People are wanting to sell," Cartwright cautions. "If you're looking to buy an aircraft this is a good time."

Also expected to be a good time is this week in Geneva. Cartwright is enthusiastic about EBACE, and not just because his corporate parent is headquartered here. "It's a real opportunity," he says, likening the new event to U.S. NBAA gatherings of 20 years ago, "when you could see everybody and get an awful lot accomplished."

"It could become the show of choice for Europe," he says. Companies that skipped EBACE 2001, he says, "know they missed the boat."

As for TAG's ability, and especially that of TAG U.S., to maintain the momentum of this year's first half once EBACE is finished, Cartwright doesn't want to say. "We're somewhat conservative by nature," he says. The stock market has been stubbornly weak, he notes, musing that the popular prognostication of a weak first half and a strong second half may well prove to have been backwards when 2002 concludes.

Still and all, "We're hoping to be up a good 20% percent over last year," he says.