Fractional provider Avantair will double its 21-strong fleet
of Piaggio Avantis by the end of 2006 under the leadership of its new majority
owner, Alfred Rapetti. More changes are in store as well: The fractional
provider announced Wednesday that it will also move its corporate headquarters
from Essex County, N.J., to St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla., by the middle of
next year, growing its corporate campus into 150,000 sq ft of office and hangar
space for more than 100 employees. In St. Pete it will have on-site capability
to perform service and maintenance, including paint and interiors. It will also
keep the Essex County location.
A retired investment banker and former nuclear engineer,
Rapetti told Show News he's been eyeing the growth of Piaggio and Avantair for
some years, and had even planned on starting a similar operation in Europe
before 9/11. Last year he bought a fractional share with the company and flew
the aircraft for 50 hours in 100 days to "test" the system. "They didn't tell
me to jump in a lake," he says. The "ultimate test," he says, was when he tried
to sell his share. "I sold the share for what I paid for it."
He says it's taken him a year to convince the former
majority owner, Charles Mathewson, to sell.
Rapetti says he'll take Avantair to the "next level" of
customer service, which will include training staff at the Elementary Etiquette
Society of Palm Beach and creating a new Italian-flavored menu with Rudy's
Catering. Key to the new service, however, will be the exclusive use of Avantis
for the flights. Previously the company owned two Raytheon Premier Is and would
have to charter other brands of aircraft in a pinch. No more. Rapetti says his
"first decision" was to get rid of the Premiers and to order more Avantis.
