Eighty-seven-year-old Memphis native Charles Kemmons Wilson knows something about hospitality, having founded the Holiday Inn hotel chain in the 1950s. Since then, he and his sons have built the Kemmons Wilson Companies conglomerate, which includes a hotel management firm, a construction company, a country club, time-share properties, a furniture refinisher, a photo processing lab and an insurance agency. Four years ago, the company applied the customer service principles of the hospitality industry to an award-winning business aviation service facility -- Wilson Air Center, which is located at Memphis International Airport.

With a fleet of aircraft -- including two Cessna Citations and several turboprop airplanes -- that supports its wide range of activities, Kemmons Wilson understands what business aircraft operators want and need. Refusing to offer different levels of service to operators of small and large aircraft, Wilson Air Center has constructed the world's largest aircraft canopy, which enables both arriving and departing passengers to stay out of the weather.

"We make sure everybody gets out at the front door under the canopy," said Robert A. Wilson, president of Wilson Air Center and executive vice president of Kemmons Wilson.

Furthermore, Wilson Air Center employees have been instructed to accommodate any reasonable request made by travelers who visit their facility.

"Our philosophy is that nobody but the general manager or I can say 'no,'" explained Robert Wilson. "Our people have to figure out how to make it work. Their last recourse is to come to us to tell us that they don't know how to make it work."

Business aircraft have been working for Kemmons Wilson for more than four decades. Charles Kemmons Wilson bought his first personal aircraft before World War II, began renting single-engine airplanes for business use during the 1950s, and bought progressively larger and more sophisticated aircraft as his travel needs increased. Although he retired as chairman of Holiday Inn in 1979, his sons Robert and Spence continue to pilot aircraft in support of their many business interests.

"We do a lot of spur-of-the-moment trips, a lot of quick-reaction flights," said Robert Wilson. "Let's say we've got a problem on a job site. If we find out about it today, we're in the air tonight."

Kemmons Wilson executives' ability to respond quickly to management challenges or acquisition opportunities because they have ready access to business aircraft is priceless, as is the ability to create more personal time by traveling quickly and efficiently.

"It's hard to justify an airplane in dollars and cents, because you can't put a figure on what it's worth to an executive to be home at night," explained Robert Wilson.

"Safety is another matter," he added. "I feel a lot more comfortable when I know who's on the airplane, how it's controlled and how the maintenance is done."

Robert Wilson also believes that he and his associates have made better business deals because they don't feel pressured to reach an agreement hastily in order to catch an airline flight.

"If everybody has airline flights at 5 or 6 p.m., sometimes you leave stuff on the table," he said. "We conduct our business until we're ready to go, and we leave when we're ready to leave."

The flight home on the business airplane also gives the Kemmons Wilson people a chance to debrief. "We've done a lot of catching up on different things en route to our destination," Wilson disclosed. "[In short] we like flying ourselves and controlling our own destiny."