IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
An Inland Empire aviation company has added to its fleet of jets with the purchase of an aircraft from a private party overseas.
Threshold Aviation Group in Chino, which buys, sells and manages aircraft used primarily by private companies, bought a Cessna Citation CJ2+ from a private party in England, said Mark DiLullo, Threshold Aviation Group’s owner and chief executive officer.
The plane was damaged when its pilot was unable to maintain proper speed after climbing too fast, DiLullo said.
“He was at about 40,000 feet, which is pretty high for a plane that size,” said DiLullo, who is now in the middle of a three-week trip to Europe looking for other planes Threshold Aviation Group might purchase. “When he got to the apex and started to level out, he wasn’t able to maintain flight.”
Twice during the flight the plane went into a sharp descent before it landed safely, with no one injured.
“The damage was pretty minimal,” DiLullo said. “It shouldn’t be difficult to fix, and once we will do it will be as good as new. It’s not fancy, just a solid aircraft that a lot of people will want to fly.
The aircraft, which Threshold Aviation Group learned about from an insurance company, was built in 2010. It seats nine – seven passengers and two crew members – and has about 300 hours of flight time. That’s the equivalent of an automobile that’s been driven about 2,000 miles, DiLullo said.
Threshold Aviation Group plans to spend about $2.1 million restoring the plane, then sell it, perhaps by this fall. DiLullo declined to say what Threshold Aviation Group paid for the aircraft, but said a new model would sell for more than $7 million.
DiLullo, who said the CJ2+ “fits our business model perfectly,” regularly travels out of the country to find planes that will bolster Threshold Aviation Group’s inventory.
“We recognize that the only way to be viable as a company in Chino is to create opportunities and then execute them with authority,” DiLullo said of his 20-year-old business. “Very little business shows up at our front [door] unsolicited.”
Threshold Aviation Group is located at Chino Airport. Its fleet includes Gulfstreams, Falcons, Challengers, Hawkers, Lear Jets, Citations and 727-VIP Aircraft.
Threshold Aviation Group’s clients include aircraft manufacturers, governments, insurance companies and individuals. It’s one of the largest aircraft maintenance and management facilities in Southern California, with more than 150,000 square feet of hangar and office space, according to the company’s website
