On the Record With
JAKE CARTWRIGHT, PRESIDENT AND CEO, TAG AVIATION USA

TAG U.S. Surpasses its Post-9/11 Goals

"Take a Hawker instead of a G." That new and sobering trend has become apparent to Jake Cartwright, president and CEO of TAG Aviation USA, as he struggles to run his San Francisco-based charter operation in one of the harshest business climates in recent memory.

He expected weak first months of 2002 followed by a second-half recovery. The year looks to be shaping up the other way around.

"On the aircraft sales side, it's a real buyer's market," Cartwright told Show News prior to NBAA. "The prices are way down," he says. "The buyers are picky and the sellers are anxious."

All that said, "struggle" might be too strong a word, as TAG U.S. is thus far enjoying what Cartwright calls a "surprisingly good" year. The unit has already met the goals it set for itself for calendar year 2002 following 9/11, having added about 25 aircraft to its managed fleet, which now totals some 130, about 90 of which are in turn available for charter.

The TAG U.S. charter business itself is running about 28 percent ahead of last year, or about 16 percent better than what was budgeted at the close of 2001. The trend toward smaller aircraft has really only become apparent this past summer, Cartwright says, with the continued bad news in the markets.

TAG comes to NBAA Orlando cautiously optimistic about its prospects, and it comes to NBAA for the first time with a full-blown display, including their first-ever booth and about 60 people. It's a fundamentally different company than it was before Swiss-based TAG bought Aviation Methods, headed by Cartwright, in 1999, and then acquired Wayfarer.

TAG had planned to mount a booth display at NBAA 2001 in New Orleans, but like many in the industry opted out of December's make-up meeting.

Unlike its European parent, which owns a fleet of about 15 aircraft for charter and which operates the Farnborough Airport in England as a new business hub, TAG U.S. owns no airplanes and runs no FBOs. "Obviously this is the biggest market," Cartwright says, big enough that TAG U.S. can prosper -- and in fact employ some 350 pilots -- just by managing and offering for charter its customers' airplanes. That program is dubbed Charter Ally.

A key TAG message these days, not surprisingly, is security. "Business aviation is a secure and safe way to travel," Cartwright says, although he acknowledges that the message is one that has to be repeated and repeated again. His firm has just done a mailing on the topic, and in a sign of the times, Dave Huntsinger, TAG's safety director, is now director of safety and security.

In a departure from pre-September 11 protocols, passengers are now carefully screened against advance passenger lists, particularly on charter flights. "If the list and the passengers don't match," Cartwright says, "we don't go."

By Rich Piellisch