This business caters to the jet set

If you've been to 50 airports in your life, you've probably taxied past 50 fixed-base operations on your way to and from the passenger terminals of those airports.

It's a good bet that you never once took special notice of any of them.

Edwards Jet Center of Montana - an FBO - at Glacier Park International Airport is a service center that provides support to general aviation aircraft and airlines flying into and out of the airport. It is a 24/7 operation that employs 26 people.

Cliff Edwards, owner of the center, is an attorney and rancher by trade. Four years ago, he bought the FBO at Glacier Park International Airport in addition to the one at Logan International Airport in Billings.

Before the purchase, the two operations had been competitors. Today they share personnel, equipment and services.

"I tell my employees it's kind of like a ranching operation," Edwards said. "We're essentially two ranches who're running the same herd of cattle."

The type of services provided by the Glacier Park International FBO include aircraft fueling, parking, tie-down, de-icing and hangar storage. It also has a shop staffed by three mechanics who do aircraft maintenance, engine overhauling and emergency repairs for general aviation and commercial carriers.

Edwards owns and charters three Citation Eagle jets and 10 King Air turboprops. Each charter is staffed by two Edwards pilots. The Citation leases for $2,000 an hour, while the King Air costs $1,300.

"If someone charters our plane, they 'own' that plane for however long the charter is," Edwards said. "The price includes the plane, pilots, aircraft maintenance and fuel.

"And yes, chartering can be expensive, but it gets less expensive the more people you have on board. For instance, it works well if you have a family that needs to go to several different places in a short period of time."

Jim Thomas, Edwards manager, said that charter aircraft are able to fly into 10,000 airports throughout the country that are not regularly served by standard commercial carriers.

Edwards Jet Center does not own any of the 12 acres on which its hangars and office space are situated. At Glacier Park International, however, Edwards has a 25-year lease with the local airport authority.

The Jet Center has two acres of hangars totaling 80,000 square feet. That's twice the space that existed when Edwards bought the business.

Owners can rent hangar space for a single-engine plane for $225 a month. That cost will increase to $2,500 for a multi-engine aircraft.

"The average number of planes coming through Edwards on a summer day might include somewhere between 75 and 80 corporate jets," Thomas said. "Friday to Monday are the busiest days."

Some passengers and pilots will stay overnight or longer, while others will just land, unload and take off again.

For visitors who stay, Edwards offers services akin to those of a combined travel agency-concierge desk. Edwards rents cars, arranges hotel reservations and gives advice about what to do, where to eat and how to have fun in the area.

Fueling is a big revenue source for any FBO, and Edwards Jet Center is no exception.

"We can store 88,000 gallons of fuel on site," Thomas said.

"On site" refers to the facility's five fuel trucks - with a combined 18,000-gallon capacity - as well as its six jet tanks and two avgas tanks south of the main terminal building.

During last weekend's Mountain Madness Air Show, Edwards was responsible for fueling every aircraft in the air show while continuing to service its usual commercial and general-aviation customers.

"We used over 200,000 gallons for the air show," Thomas said. "We normally fuel out of Missoula, but for the air show we had to pull fuel out of Seattle, Spokane, Calgary, Edmonton and from somewhere in central Canada I'd never even heard of before. And all of that fuel had to come in by truck."

The price of jet fuel is about $3.83 a gallon, while fuel for piston planes is slightly less.

Cliff Edwards is enthusiastic about the potential of his operation and sees continued expansion in its future.

"There has been a considerable change in the past decade in the travel patterns coming into the area," he said. "During Thanksgiving and Christmas, our hangars are packed with the second-home crowd."

The Jet Center has just leased five more acres at the northeast end of the airport for additional hangar construction.

"We've done this because we think this area is going to continue with its responsible expansion and that aviation is going to be a very big part of that," Edwards said.

Reporter George Kingson may be reached at 758-4438 or by e-mail at gkingson@dailyinterlake.com.