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CFM Adds Newton Oldacre McDonald Aircrafts to Fleet, Keeping up with Surging Demand

Dépèche transmise le 2 septembre 2009 par Business Wire

NASHVILLE, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Corporate Flight Management, Inc. (CFM), Tennessee’s largest charter air operator, has increased its fleet by 10 percent to meet increased demand, Allen Howell, CFM president and chief executive officer said today.

Addition of the Cessna Citation V Ultra and Learjet 35A, owned by Nashville-based real estate developer Newton Oldacre McDonald, will help the company respond to an increase of 20% in charter activity the company has witnessed since February of this year, Howell said.

Howell attributes increased business to a number of factors, including a slight improvement in the overall economy, growth in certain market segments such as government use of charter air, and innovative pricing the company implemented in the past 90 days.

“The entire air travel industry and particularly private air travel has undergone some pretty intensive scrutiny by the traveling public over the past year,” he said. “If people don’t absolutely have to travel, they are not. Some organizations have sold their company planes because of the inefficiencies and expense of maintaining the equipment. But many corporations realize air travel is more essential than ever in running their businesses and the places their business takes them are not necessarily near large commercial airports.”

CFM, like many other charter operators, flies to approximately 5,000 airports and can allow passengers to accomplish round trip travel and multiple stops within a normal business day.

“Middle Tennessee’s corporate base frequently has operations off the beaten path—hospitals in rural communities, retail real estate developments in smaller markets like Newton Oldacre McDonald, large customers in places like Bentonville, AR—and they need the flexibility private air offers,” Howell said.

Addition of the new Newton Oldacre McDonald planes, along with a 200 percent increase in its sales and customer service staff, positions CFM to capitalize in the economic growth Howell believes the charter industry is currently seeing and will experience for the next several months.

In addition to charter fleet operation, CFM offers aircraft management, maintenance, ground support, infrastructure development, aircraft sales, pilot training and financial services.

Newton Oldacre McDonald Principal Mark McDonald said the firm is delighted to partner with CFM in the “win/win partnership.”

Newton Oldacre McDonald, with offices in Nashville, Prattville (AL), Cincinnati and Phoenix, is a developer of signature shopping centers such as Nashville West and net-leased retail properties throughout the Southeast, Midwest and Southwest.