SkyQuest Charters bets on football

The folks at SkyQuest Charters watched college football

this past weekend with one thing on their minds: business.

The Reno-based air charter company is as eager as any

Notre Dame alumnus to find out what teams are competing

in the 27 bowl games that will be played between now and

Jan. 3.

In fact, they've been spending the last few weeks studying

the results like seasoned bettors trying to guess which

teams have the best chance.

That's so SkyQuest Charters can be the first to call with

a bid to fly the teams and their entourages to the big events.

During the season, SkyQuest flies the football teams of

the University of Nevada, Reno, Fresno State and University

of California, Berkeley, to most of their away games. But

the bowl games are an even bigger business opportunity.

"With the regular games they only fly the team," said

Jimmy Duke, a retired pilot and airline executive who finds

the planes SkyQuest leases for its charter flights. "But with

the bowl games, they take the team, the band and a bunch

of alumni."

SkyQuest can supply everything related to the flight,

including the plane, pilot and crew, which are leased from a

list of airlines, as well as baggage handling and catering.

"We supply what I call athletic meals," said Duke "You

know, healthy food and Gatorade."

College football, both the regular season contracts and

the bowl games, represents about 20 percent of SkyQuest's

business. The bulk of its business comes from charter flights

during the spring and summer that fly high school and college

students to vacation spots.

Last year, before Sept. 11, SkyQuest flew 83 flights to

Cancun and 80 to Puerto Vallarta from Houston, Dallas,

Atlanta, Chicago and Sacramento, for a total of 600 flight

hours.

But like all airline-related businesses, things have

changed since the terrorist's attacks.

"The numbers are way off this year," said Kevin

Gustafson, founder, owner and president. In previous years

the company has run three aircraft, fully loaded, during the

spring break season. This year the company ran one plane,

and it was never fully booked, said Gustafson.

In past years Skyquest has run holiday charters out of

New York City, as many as 27 flights from the city to the

Caribbean between Thanksgiving and President's Day

weekend in February. This year, said Gustafson, the company

has just two flights, one during Christmas and another

for New Year's, flying from the Big Apple to the islands.

To make matters worse, the beleaguered commercial airlines

now are vying for some of SkyQuest's business.

"We're competing more and more with scheduled air,"

said Gustafson. "We never used to compete with them for

the bowl games."

So SkyQuest is looking to expand into new markets,

such as music tours, around-the-world programs and incentive

travel. The latter arises when a large corporation charters

a plane to fly its top salespeople to Bermuda, for example,

as reward in an incentive program.

Gustafson originally established the company five years

ago to do a program for the casinos that would fly tours into

Reno. But Gustafson said the casinos don't have a unified

direction; some cater to people on the East Coast, others to

Californians. So he never got a casino program off the

ground.

It's unlikely SkyQuest will get into the business of chauffeuring

high rollers or wealthy Lake Tahoe residents, either.

The company specializes in larger planes, from 737s to

DC10s, that carry between 122 to 379 passengers.

The typical ad hoc client, which represents about 10 per

cent of the company's business, is a tour operator looking to

transport a group of 300 people who want to be on the

same flight. For that, charters are the only option.

Before Sept. 11, SkyQuest's business was booming.

According to Gustafson, business grew between 80 percent

to 200 percent every year until this year.

But for now, with the bowl games around the corner,

business is back on track.

"Between now and January 3rd or 4th," said Duke, "we'l

be really busy."