Out of the Ashes of 9/11
Local Air School Wins Recovery Prize
By: Melissa Ostrow
For: Long Island Press
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GARDEN CITY-Like the phoenix from Egyptian mythology, a Farmingdale air school has risen from the ashes of 9/11 with bright new feathers. Air East, a local flight training school, airplane charter service, airplane rental and specialty aircraft maint-enance company located at Republic Airport, revamped its business not just to survive, but thrive. And it has just won the first New York State prize for disaster recovery, the Phoenix Award.
After 9/11, flight schools across the country were forced to temporarily close their doors. But insurance and employees still had to be paid, planes had to be maintained. Air East's flight school was losing $50,000 a month. Afraid their company might go under, co-owners Maureen and Mike Tarascio applied for the first Small Business Administration Economic Injury Disaster Loan, and began to shift their focus from the flight school to the charter operations. The move put the company back on track and enabled them to keep all their 30 employees. "When you have lemons, make lemonade," says Maureen.
Flight schools were closed after the terrorist attacks, but charter companies were blossoming. Security changes were causing more delays and cancellations with large airlines. "[Charters] became a very popular thing with executive flying," says Tarascio.
People were frustrated with the airlines, and scared. If they chartered a plane, they felt assured their luggage was being checked and they were the only ones on the plane, explained Clifton Stroud, director of communications and media for National Air Transportation Association (NATA). "It made them feel a little more safe," he says. Since 9/11 there has been a 20- to 40-percent increase in people flying charter.
While Air East survived, an estimated 20 percent of flight schools were not as lucky and had to close their doors for good, according to David Kennedy, manager for government and industry affairs for NATA. Flight schools have a "thin profit margin," Stroud adds.
Many flight schools are owned by "fixed based operators" (FBO), which means that they not only teach flying, but charter planes, do maintenance and repair and supply gas. In the wake of 9/11, many FBOs found the increase in insurance and restrictions were too costly, says NATA's Kennedy. Washington D.C. and New York airports were hit hardest because of their proximity to the disasters. They were restricted far longer than air operators in the rest of the U.S.
But the flight school was a passion for the Tarascios, who founded it after Mike bought his first plane in 1982. They now own 11 planes for the flight school and four charter planes.
If it had not been for the loan they received and the lobbying Maureen Tarascio did of Congress in October 2001, as secretary for Long Island Business Aviation Association, Air East may never have reopened its flight school doors. But even after the Federal Aviation Administration issued an air traffic waiver for Republic Airport on November 22, 2001, and Air East's doors had reopened, they didn't have a steady supply of students.
To bring back customers, they had to expand their offerings, adding a computer-testing center and a flight simulator for instrument students. The extra effort seems to have worked, since they are "seeing a resurgence of students and things are returning to normal," Maureen adds.
If a stronger business wasn't reward enough, Air East Airways was picked out of 500 potential recipients nominated to win the New York State Small Business Development Center's (SBDC) 2003 Entrepreneurs of the Year-Phoenix. "The award recognizes the capacity in small businesses to sustain major disasters and their ability to come back," Mike Ross, director of public relations of SBDC central office in Albany. "[Air East] are really an excellent example."
