The US Department of Transportation (DOT) has proposed granting Western Aircraft (Boise) authority to operate Part 135 scheduled passenger operations following a November 2021 application by the airline to start the flights.
“We tentatively conclude that Western is a US citizen and is fit, willing, and able to provide scheduled passenger operations as a commuter air carrier,” the DOT said on December 22, 2022, in relation to docket no: DOT-OST-2021-0149.
Western Aircraft operates a fleet of 12 nine-seat Pilatus PC-12s out of its bases in Boise, Honolulu and Panama City Northwest Florida Beaches. The airline currently works as a licenced air taxi service running on-demand flights. Presently, seven of those twelve PC-12s are in Honolulu, where its biggest customer is Lāna‘i Resorts.
Western has signed an agreement to operate flights between Honolulu and Lanai City to service the resort's guests. Under the agreement with Lāna‘i, Western wants to run scheduled round-trip services every hour. Lāna‘i Resorts will lease an unspecified number of PC-12s to Western in exchange for the flights, which will operate on a pass-through model with the actual costs of flight activity billed to Lāna‘i Resorts.
Western Aircraft also told the DOT that they plan to start running scheduled passenger flights from Boise to unspecified cities in the Western US. The airline said it plans to do this using aircraft from the existing fleet.
Western expects to incur about USD12.12 million in operating expenses during its first year of operating scheduled flights. As of December 31, 2021, the DOT document indicating Western Aircraft had current assets of USD32.51 million and current liabilities of USD27.47 million, leaving it with a positive working capital of USD5.04 million. There is also an intercompany revolving loan facility between the airline and its parent company, Greenwich AeroGroup, Inc., making a USD30 million line of credit available to Western Aircraft.
Western Aircraft was established in 1957 and acquired by Greenwich in 2007. Greenwich is wholly owned by W.R. Berkley Corporation Wadia Group (WRBC), a Delaware company trading on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). William R. Berkley owns 20.6% of WRBC, with the next biggest shareholders being the Vanguard Group (8.5%), BlackRock (5.2%), and Morgan Stanley (5%).
Interested persons have 14 days from December 22 to respond to the DOT’s notification it intends to give Western Aircraft approval to operate scheduled passenger services.
