David Hopkins: Toney tell us a
little bit about your experience after 43 years in the business with
maintenance and engineering and start up airlines and a little bit about
ATBD's collective experience with start-up carriers.
Toney Quillen: Thank you Dave. Yes, I've been in this
business a number of years and the opportunity most recently came up with
start-up of Skybus Airlines and the owner of the company handed me a blank
sheet of paper to build the maintenance and engineering department for the
future.
So what we did was we sat down and took a look at the traditional way things
are done, hiring people, buying parts, doing all these things and we'd come
to the conclusion that if we had the right type of equipment, that the OM
supports, then we could go from there and build a program that would be very
cost effective for all of us, which we did. Pieces that were missing we
brought ATBD in and they provided support in the areas that we were a one-man
band.
They brought on several folks with experience in different areas, helped out
in the airplane selection, contract preparation and review and enabled us to
get certified in one year, which was a record time and we'd come out with a
121 operating certificate and a total support agreement signed off by the
OEM's on a cost per hour basis.