IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
San Bernardino County has become a landing, refueling and maintenance hub for aviators thanks to Threshold Aviation Group, a fixed base operator (FBO), aircraft fueling station and maintenance center located at Chino Airport. With two hangers available to house aircrafts that come through the area, Threshold Aviation has been a destination for everything from Gulfstream jets to small, piston engine planes for the past 20 years. The company can provide nearly anything aviators need, and it has quickly gained the reputation of having the lowest aircraft fuel prices in Southern California.
Affordable Aircraft Fuel, No Landing Fees
“Our retail rate for Avgas is $4.95 a gallon, and that’s full serve,” said Tom Bressan, chief operations officer of Threshold Aviation. “There are airports in close proximity to here that are a dollar to two dollars more a gallon.” Bressan believes that the fueling station, which carries high quality jet fuel for jet aircraft and 100LL (low lead) fuel for small private aircraft, is one of the top draws of the operation. “Our transient traffic has increased dramatically as fuel prices continue to increase,” he said.
Unscheduled traffic is welcome at Threshold Aviation, and the facility waives landing fees and ramp fees for pilots that land on its 7,000 foot runway. According to Bressan, the company receives calls every night from people who want to land there; they are often surprised to learn that there will be no landing fee. “And if we have room in the hanger, we’ll let them stay in the hanger overnight,” he said.
Threshold Aviation has two hangers at Chino Airport, each of them a generous 45,000 square feet. “We have 90,000 square feet of hanger space, and right now we are full,” he said. “We couldn’t put another plane in the hanger if we had to.”
Provision Services, Maintenance and Interiors
Threshold Aviation can also handle provisions for flights, including restaurant catering, snacks and drinks that customers request. According to Bressan, provisioning is a popular service among both business and recreational aviators. “These are light aircraft that are privately owned and flown by private pilots,” Bressan said. “Some are recreational aviators, some are flying for business.”
Another popular service offered at Threshold Aviation is interior completion. Because there are artisan woodworkers, custom leather specialists and upholstery experts onsite, the company’s interior department can recover seats, install carpet and change side panels or window panels, in addition to repairing ceilings and refinishing or replacing woodwork. “We can do anything that would modernize the aircraft,” Bressan said. “Aircraft interiors get dated very quickly. The average life span is five to seven years.”
The maintenance services at Threshold Aviation are one of the biggest draws for visitors; because the facility is certified as an FAA-approved Part 145 repair station, its maintenance department has repaired aircrafts of all types. “We’ve invested in people, tooling and training that allows us to perform major maintenance tasks and repairs, things that most other repair stations would not even tackle,” Bressan said. “We’re very creative in the way we approach things.”
Recently, the company’s maintenance workers were able to repair a European aircraft that had sustained significant damage and corrosion. “We were able to assist the buyer of the aircraft in the repair,” Bressan said. “We had to remove the entire interior of the plane, remove the landing gear and then take the wing off.” When the repairs were first estimated at $1.3 million by the manufacturer, the owner wasn’t sure he would be able to sustain the expense. “We were able to do it for a fraction of that price,” Bressan said.
Jobs for Local Residents, Revenues for the County
Due to the low fuel costs and waived landing fees, there is a consistent influx of fliers that stop at Threshold Aviation. As a result, the company brings substantial revenues to San Bernardino County. Often, aviators who need to pick up passengers at a major airport will stop to refuel in Chino before heading to their next destination; other times, an aircraft comes in for a maintenance check, or lands long enough for a cleaning and re-stocking of provisions. The culmination of this is more revenue for San Bernardino County at a time when it is desperately needed.
Job creation is also a cornerstone of Threshold Aviation. The company employs approximately 60 people, from maintenance technicians, to inspectors, to cleaning crews, to upholstery and woodshop specialists. “In addition to that, we have as many as 10 sub-contractors that assist us,” Bressan said. “There are 60 to 70 people working here at any given time.” Nearly all of the company’s employees live in San Bernardino County.
A Pleasant Surprise in San Bernardino County
Threshold Aviation is just one example of a company that can play a major role in the revamping of San Bernardino County’s reputation as a viable epicenter for business. “It’s very surprising for people that stop here and see what we’ve done,” Bressan said. “They’re impressed by what we’ve done with our hanger space and office space, and they see that we’re fast, efficient, effective and thorough.”
