Jacob Ogles
Florida’s Governor needs access to a plane, most in Tallahassee agree. Whether the state should own it remains an open question.
One Pensacola company said it could provide Gov. Ron DeSantis a better ride at a lower price with contracted service.
“If they want to base their decision on financial, then Aero is the clear choice,” said Michael Carro, a partner at Aero Capital Flight Services.
The charter service said the state should hire a company to provide flights for DeSantis, as well as whoever else the state authorizes to use the plane.
Carro said that type of public service work fits in well with the company’s longstanding commitment to the community. Whether it’s transporting public officials or ensuring speedy organ transplants, Aero pilots fly for more than a beautiful view.
Above and Beyond
Like many charter companies in Florida, Aero advertises flights for convenience, business and pleasure.
But since the business launched four years ago, the company’s primary revenue source has been emergency flight services, Carro said. That means pilots remain available at a moment’s notice to provide critical services.
“The company really prides itself on working with our medical community,” Carro said.
That includes flying organ transplants. That specialty means pilots must be ready to fly to a hospital with little warning, to expeditiously move these medical deliveries to another hospital. There’s a short window for an organ to remain useful for surgeries.
“We built Aero on that premise of really giving back, and our pilots take tremendous pride in that work,” Carro said. “A call like that can be demanding, but they see it as a calling. And every time they do one of those flights, they feel they contributed to saving lives.”
Moving Governors?
How’s that translate to shipping Governors around Florida? While 90 percent of the trips DeSantis makes around Florida follow a tightly planned schedule, Governors also get called to disaster sites and crime events.
Aero officials will be as ready for those calls, just as they are for medical emergencies.
Should the company land a state contract, it will dedicate one plane for use by the state’s top executive.
The company could charge around $2.5 million for 840 hours of flight time on a Cessna Citation V. For about $3.5 million the state could contract the same time on a Citation XLS, the same model as former Gov. Rick Scott’s private plane.
Incidentally, an $88.9 billion budget proposal released Friday by the House includes $7.2 million for aircraft, with the money listed as a “special category” line item within funding for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
A Senate plan, meanwhile, includes no funding to buy a plane.
Aero lobbyist Scott Remington said the best place to budget for the Governor’s flights isn’t law enforcement, but part of the general budget managed by the Department of Management Services.
Contracting with a charter makes sense, Remington said.
Carro suggests chartering with a private company would be more financially prudent than buying a plane. Purchasing aircraft must be considered along with costs of staffing pilots, renting hangar space and maintaining the vehicles.
Aero, in contrast, has its own staff of pilots, all of whom have naval aviation experience. That’s a benefit of operating a charter plane business in Pensacola, home of the Blue Angels and Naval Air Station Pensacola.
But besides prestige from military training, Aero maintains Part 135 certificate, and the company is also ARG/US Gold certified.
The 10,000-Foot View
Another key difference will be the craft itself.
Since DeSantis took office and Scott’s private plane no longer became an available form of conveyance, the governor has flown on a King Air seized in a drug bust.
While there’s a certain symbolism to using a seized vehicle, seized planes come with their own problems.
That issue came to the forefront when DeSantis had to make an emergency landing January in Clearwater. The Tampa Bay Times reports that particular plane had $600,000 in repairs and interior overhauls since being taken by the state in 2016.
Carro said either model of Citation jet would be more efficient in terms of traveling faster and making fewer stops.
Besides, Remington said the FDLE should be focused on law enforcement. Caring for an aircraft or shuttling the governor around Florida isn’t the best use of the agency’s dollars.
A significant difference in chartering with a company could be staffing. Flight regulations mean charter planes must have two pilots, and they individually can’t log too many hours. But the company has enough pilots on call to handle staffing situations, Carro said, even on short notice at odd hours.
The governor does need to get around Florida, not just during disasters but to interact with constituents. DeSantis in his official capacity has also taken trips to New York and Washington, D.C. But even the buzziest governors never used 840 flight hours in a year, based on Aero cursory research.
While the planes in Aero’s hangar aren’t comparable to Air Force One, a Boeing 747 aircraft, the planes remain a nice way to get around. The Citation 5 seats seven, and the Citation XLS seats 8 (with a little extra headroom). Both have four seats in the center facing one another with tables so the governor can hold small meetings while in flight.
Aero executives note that if they get a state contract, it’s on them to maintain their own fleet of aircraft, and to properly staff, pay and feed their own employees.
Carro sees that as a chief benefit. Ultimately, it’s a contract relationship that puts little burden on the state outside budgeting payments.
“It really depends on if they want to be in the airplane business or if they want to do more flying and know buying,” he said.
