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Businesswoman starts air charter service

From ceramic woodland creatures to antiques to airplanes, Jeanie Clinton has made money from them all. Now, she hopes that her interest in adventurous tours will help grow her company, Wild Blue Yonder Air Charter Service of Goldsby. Although the company is based in Goldsby, the air charter service's King Air C-90B is kept at Norman's Max Westheimer Airport. Since the company started in October, it has specialized in carrying small groups of business and recreational travelers. Now, though, she would like to branch out into more recreational travel, primarily for exotic adventurous tours for small groups. "While we like the business travel, we plan to branch out into more recreational travel, offering escorted adventure tours," she said. This part of her company will be developed jointly with hotels and experienced, friendly tour guides at the destination. Already she has "a couple of packages" put together and is in the process of matching up her intended clientele with the hotels and guides, Clinton said. These packages include tours to Mexico and even some into America's West where guests will receive a different kind of vacation. "We're considered something, like Monument Valley (in Utah) where we will fly into the valley and arrange for horseback tours of the entire area," Clinton said. "That will give the guests a different kind of vacation with a different perspective." One of the first to be offered probably will be a trip to San Miguel, Mexico. "We're still in the process of finding just the right guide and the hotel to work with," she said. It seems that when Clinton starts on a business, "things just progress." As co-owner of United Design Inc. in Noble, when that company was sold in 1996 she found herself with time on her hands. "I've always been interested in airplanes, in fact I own several of them now, so it was just a progression from my interest in aviation that we started the air charter service," Clinton said. After putting together a team, finding just the right airplane - a King Air C-90B - she applied for the Part 135 air charter certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration. That application was made in June 2000, she said. "We got our certificate in October 2001 and started in business," she said. Although she had has held a private pilot's license for several years, starting a charter service was beyond the realm of her experience. "I did a lot of reading and now I'm getting on-the- job training," she said. "Also, Jim Hensley of American Jet Charter (based at Wiley Post Airport) has helped us a lot, giving us advice." Wild Blue Yonder seems to be on the right track to becoming a viable charter service, Hensley said. "They seem to do pretty good," he said. "We've used them a couple of times when we needed another airplane. From the feedback we're getting from our customers, they seem to be professionals." With five established air charter services already serving the Oklahoma City market, there is still room for another, Hensley said. "If any segment seems to be over-saturated, it's the turboprops," he said. "We have two of them and Millionaire (also at Wiley Post Airport) has four." Still Wild Blue Yonder seems to fit one of the smaller niches in the market, with American Jet Charter sitting at the top. "We're the only ones with the whole mix (of airplanes)," he said. His company offers every type of aircraft from the single-engine piston- powered propeller plane to midsize jets, Hensley said. Most of the Oklahoma City charter services, including Wild Blue Yonder, offer flights to just about all of North America. "We can operate in all the contiguous states, Canada, Mexico and the northern Caribbean," Clinton said. Besides Bennett and Clinton, there is one other employee, Marilyn McCary, the travel coordinator who handles schedules, travel arrangements and special requests. When Wild Blue Yonder started operations, it offered special flights to the University of Oklahoma football games in the fall. It may appear as if October was a rough month to start the flying business because of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. "It really wasn't," Clinton said. "There were a lot of people who were tired of the security measures at airports and who wanted to save time. That is where the charter services come in. "We pick people up at the airport nearest to them, fly them to their destinations and bring them back to the same airport. For people whose time is valuable, or if there's a large group going to the same place, air charter is the least expensive way to travel." Hensley agreed that charter travel seems to be picking up. "Right after the attacks, some of our customers left, but then we got new ones who were tired of the airport hassles," he said. Although Clinton is busy getting the air charter company going, she has not neglected her other operations. She also owns a general store in the Taos, N.M., area and recently opened an antique store-coffee bar-restaurant-general store in Medicine Park, near the Wichita Wildlife Refuge. "We will sell little gift items, antiques and other things like souvenirs," she said. But, one of the big things with her air charter business, at least right now, is the security. As long as security is tight at major airports, which takes from two to three hours to go through, it will be good for her business. If, though, the general aviation airports must create tighter security, that could hurt her business. "As long as it's the same all over and it's enforced the same, I don't see any problem," she said. "I'm sure that there are arguments on both sides, but right now, no one knows what's going to be required for the smaller airports. "Now, most of our customers fly to and from the smaller airports, where the airlines don't go, so there isn't a problem for us."