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Threshold Aviation at Chino Airport is trying get control of extra hangar space so it can bring in a pilot’s school. If it happens the school could provide a major boost to the airport and the local economy. Final say rests with San Bernardino County, the airport’s owner.
Threshold Aviation Group is trying to bring a pilot’s school to Chino Airport.
The company is negotiating to assume control of two hangers that are leased to another aviation company, said Doug Crowther, Threshold’s director of business operations.
Once an agreement is reached, Threshold Aviation hopes to persuade the school to move to those buildings.
Crowther declined to name the school or the occupants of the buildings it is trying to take over, and that negotiations with both parties are ongoing.
“We have a large pilot school in Southern California that is very interested in moving here,” Crowther said. “That’s all we’re prepared to say until we get a deal completed.”
Students could spend up to 18 months in training before completing their courses and becoming licensed commercial pilots. Classes in maintenance training would also be offered.
But none of that can happen unless Threshold Aviation, which has operated at Chino Airport for 10 years, can get control of the additional hangar space.
“There’s an opportunity out there and we’re trying to take advantage of it,” Crowther said. “It would bring in something new and allow us to expand our business plan.”
Threshold Aviation leases two hangars from San Bernardino County, the airport’s owner and operator. The company uses one of those hangars and subleases the other.
All four structures are at the southeast section of the airport, and each covers about 50,000 square feet. All were built by Lockheed Aircraft, which maintained operations at Chino Airport until the late 1970s.
“They’ve told us and they’ve told the county that they don’t need the space anymore,” Crowther said. “Now it’s just a matter of working out a deal, and we expect to be able to do that fairly soon.”
Any agreement in which a lease were to change hands must be approved by the San Bernardino County Department of Airports and the County Board of Supervisors.
Threshold Aviation, which employs about 65 people, services and maintains a fleet of corporate and private jets. It occupies about 150,000 square feet of space at Chino Airport, its home since it moved there from Ontario International Airport.
It’s one of the largest aircraft maintenance and manufacturing companies in Southern California, with a fleet that includes Gulfstreams, Falcons, Challengers, Lear Jets, Citations and 727-VIP Jet Aircraft.
Threshold Aviation, whose offices and hanger space sit near a 7,000-foot runway, provides a variety of services to its clients, including insurance, storage, maintenance, inspections and providing pilots. Some of their inspections are more detailed and take longer to complete than similar inspections conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration, Crowther said.
Within the aviation industry, the company may be best known for buying, restoring and selling private airplanes. Threshold Aviation has done that more than 50 times during the past 15 years, as company officials travel the world to find private jets that can be restored at a workable price.
For example, last June Threshold Aviation bought a Cessna Citation CJ2+ in England from a private party. The plane, which was damaged after its pilot flew too high and then did not maintain a proper speed, cost about $2.1 million to restore.
It has since been sold for an undisclosed sum, said Mark DiLullo, Threshold Aviation’s founder and chief executive officer.
Threshold Aviation was also scheduled to provide the aircraft that would have been used in an investigation into High Ice Water Content, a natural phenomenon blamed for the 2009 Air France crash that killed 228 people.
NASA and the FAA were going to conduct the investigation, but the funding was withdrawn and the program never happened. Threshold Aviation officials admitted they were disappointed: not only would the inquiry have made commercial aviation safer, it
would have been a chance to be a small part of aviation history.
Now Threshold Aviation is trying to get a pilot’s school. A pilot’s school could also be a boost for the local economy: besides employing 30 to 40 people full time, it will be able to train up to 500 would-be pilots at a time, Crowther said.
Given the amount of time they could spend in school, the program could be a boon not only for the airport but the local economy as well, perhaps generating between $1 million and $2 million a year in revenue, DiLullo said
“I can’t imagine why the county, or anyone else, would be against bringing a pilot’s school to the airport,” DiLullo said. “This will
bring more activity to the airport, more arrivals and departures, and that’s good for both sides. That’s also what the FAA is looking for, more activity.”
Negotiations for the lease exchange have gone smoothly, and a deal could be reached within 30 days, DiLullo said.
A well-run, well-publicized school for pilots could also give the local aviation industry a much-needed boost.
“The industry is running out of pilots, and one of the reasons is younger people aren’t interested in being pilots anymore,” DiLullo said. “I don’t know why that is, but it’s a problem everywhere.”
Chino Airport, which opened in 1940, was first used to accommodate military flights. Eight years later it was taken over by San Bernardino County, and in 1960 it became a general aviation airport.
Today it handles about 165,000 arrivals and departures annually, said James Jenkins, the county’s director of airports.
County officials are open to the idea of bringing a pilot’s school to the airport, Jenkins said.
“If they have a chance to diversify and expand on their business model, we think that’s a good thing,” Jenkins said.
