Sunset air charter maps expansion

PETALUMA – Sunset Aviation Inc., an aircraft charter, management, sales and acquisition company acquired in May of last year by JetDirect Aviation Holdings, is expanding its business beyond the North Bay.

The company has been serving the private sector of aviation for more than 16 years. Burlingame-based JetDirect announced that with the expansion, Sunset will be its light-jet and turboprop subsidiary with operations across the U.S. and also expanding its North Bay operations.

“Today Sunset is an established leader in that industry segment,” said Greg Campbell, chairman of JetDirect Aviation Holdings. “We will leverage Sunset’s experience and expertise managing and operating more than 35 turboprop, light jet and VLJs under its air carrier certificate.”

Dan Drohan, who founded Sunset when he was 20 years old, will stay on as the president and chief executive officer.

“One of my goals starting the business was I wanted Sunset to be a big deal in the business. This is one of the biggest deals in private aviation,” Mr. Drohan said.

Mr. Drohan said the company plans to expand its fleet to anywhere from 40 to 60 planes in the next 18 months.

“Clearly it will be a bigger challenge to move outside the Bay Area,” he said. “But we are up to the task. We have worked very hard to become what we are. It is a lot about group-oriented culture.” Sunset began in Novato as an air tour company and started gaining traction in the industry in 2001 and 2002, said Mr. Drohan.

“This is a luxury business,” Mr. Drohan said of private aviation. “But regardless of what is happening in the economy, people will own airplanes. There is more of an acceptance of private aviation. People are always surprised to find out that about 50 percent of our business is personal, not business. People take them on family vacations.”

Sunset has had aircraft in Novato, Santa Rosa, Concord, Napa and Sacramento. With the expansion, there are now aircraft based in Florida, Ohio, Texas and Southern California. The fleet consists of King Air, Citation, Beechjet, Learjet, Premier, Hawker and Eclipse aircraft.

Sunset opened its headquarters in Petaluma a year and a half ago and the operations will continue to be based there, according to Mr. Drohan. They will be able to access non-operational business support, sales and marketing services from the other JetDirect affiliates. Dave Weil is senior vice president of regional operations and administration for JetDirect. By establishing other California bases Sunset will be able to effectively compete in the light-jet market segment, Mr. Weil said.

Of the acquisition by JetDirect, Mr. Drohan said, ”there was a huge boost to the credibility and value of the company.”

The initial talks with JetDirect started in 2005. It took a year and a half for the deal to go through. Mr. Drohan said he would not have expanded out of the area on his own, but the direction the company is going feels like a continuation of where he left off.