Originally Posted by
captjns
Correct me if I’m incorrect with my analysis. I’m a former 119 post holder and 121 aviator. We were allowed to purchase as many aircraft as we wanted to. Yay! However, these aircraft would be nothing more than hangar queens, or advertising billboards. The operator had to demonstrate to the POI and PMI there there was sufficient support from within the entire company. This pertains to operations and maintenance. Been there when we had one bird on the property with 3 going through conformity checks. I would think that CFR 135 operations have to satisfy the same requirements? All the best for 2026.
Captjns,
What you described I suspect did and does happen with some 135 operators. I've been with the CEO shortly after he took over Baker in Jul '22...started with 3 and as he said, he would not add a 4th airplane until he was making money with 3. That has been the MO here for the last 3.5 years. He brought on 2 CLs initially and for a year tested the waters...it has proven beneficial enough to make the agreement with FJ for 20 more. The speed at which these new airplanes come on the certificate is dependent upon training slots (which Baker is not having difficulty in getting support from Flight Safety) for the new pilots.
No doubt it is a balancing act of having bodies match airplane and then having sales match those expectations. If past is predictive of future events, I say Baker will do well in that area.