Terry Boer, the owner and president of newly-rebranded Flyby Air, has expanded his aviation services company at Michigan's Muskegon County airport into a regional network of FBOs across the state of Michigan. Over the course of a few years, Boer and his team at what began as Executive Air Transport have purchased Tulip City Air Service at West Michigan Regional airport in Holland, Michigan, where they established the company's second full-service FBO, and acquired another charter provider, Air Service at Traverse City, Michigan's Cherry Capital airport. The acquisitions have diversified Flyby Air's portfolio of services, enabling the company to survive a year marked by a global pandemic and extensive lockdowns.

The Flyby Air team experienced its first hiccup early on in 2020 when it rebranded from Executive Air Transport into Vision Air Center. After learning that one of its top suppliers had trademarked the name ‘Vision’, the team had to act quickly, ultimately landing on the name Flyby Air as a tribute to the military, which represents approximately one-third of the company's business.

Flyby Air was deemed an essential service amid the pandemic, and continued operating its FBO services, providing the freedom of on-demand travel 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Despite remaining open, however, Flyby Air endured a significant reduction in its charter business, largely because less people were flying during the national crisis. Restaurants, bars and business closures led to minimal flights into KMKG airport, where many of Flyby Air's customers would typically charter turnaround flights for lunch meetings with clients.

“Everyone stepped up and did extra,” Boer says. “If there was a silver lining, it gave us an opportunity to look at our processes and services and ask, 'are these the best?' We learned how to streamline everything, from accounting, billing and customer communication to how we dispatch a flight. Before, we were going so fast and furious that we didn't have time to think about those things, but this gave us an opportunity to do that.”

While annual charter flights were down, maintenance picked up as many aircraft owners elected to upgrade their jets and airplanes during the quiet months. Flyby Air's flight school also saw a significant increase in business, doubling its students from 15 to 30.

As Boer looks forward to 2021, he's excited for the future of the company. Currently, Flyby Air is expanding its charter flight business at KTVC airport in Traverse City. The location will soon offer a full-service FBO with a new fuel farm, powered by Phillips 66 Aviation fuel, that's expected to have a capacity to hold 45,00 gallons of jet fuel and 10,000 gallons of other aviation fuel.

“With the expansion of charter flights and fleet size, that trickles down to more aviation fuel sales, more maintenance and more hangar rent,” Boer continues. “When we come out [of the pandemic], we're going to be a way better company, and I thought we were a pretty good company before.”