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EXTRACTING THE MOST FROM AIR TRANSPORTATION |
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EVEN IN A DOWNTURN, AIRCRAFT CAN HELP MAINTAIN AND GROW BUSINESS EXTRACTING THE MOST FROM AIR TRANSPORTATION FROM CHARTER TO OWNERSHIP TO MANAGING OTHER PEOPLE'S AIRCRAFT |
For many years, Andrew Sabin, the owner
of Sabin Metal Corporation, the largest privately owned precious-metal
refiner in the United States, chartered aircraft, using them to visit
customers nationwide and travel from his New York City headquarters
to the company plant near Rochester, New York. But a decade ago, he moved his office
from Manhattan to East Hampton, New York (near the eastern end of
Long Island) to improve his quality of life. With his metal recycling
business and travel requirements growing, he decided last September
to make his life even simpler: he moved into fractional aircraft ownership,
buying time in a Beechjet operated by Raytheon Aircraft’s Travel
Air subsidiary. In March, he added a share in a Raytheon Hawker business
jet. The decision was relatively easy for
Sabin. He knew he did not fly enough to justify buying an entire airplane.
He also knew it would be more economical to use a fractional share,
rather than charter, to meet his travel requirements. In addition,
he felt secure knowing that the airplane’s manufacturer would
be flying and maintaining it. However, the clincher was the convenience
of letting Raytheon handle all the details. “My philosophy is that every day
above ground is a good day. I am getting older, and lack of stress
[is important to me],” said Sabin. “I call up and the plane
is waiting for me. I make one phone call. I don’t think about
getting someplace. There is no stress in dealing with this.” “As my business expanded, I found
it was much easier to see customers and build plants in areas where
I would not have gone without an aircraft,” said Sabin. For example,
when he had the opportunity to build a new plant in North Dakota,
access to air transportation was an issue. The Williston area had
a good labor pool and low power rates, so Sabin believed that the
work ethic of his prospective employees and the projected cost of
doing business there could make the facility one of the most competitive
in the industry. But Williston only had one airline flight per day,
so the ability to fly there via business aircraft became key. When the new Williston plant opened recently,
Sabin flew from New York to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to have lunch
with a customer and then continued on to North Dakota, arriving in
plenty of time to join his employees and watch the new furnace open
at 8 p.m. In addition, if a customer wants to watch
his material being processed at a recycling plant, Sabin sends an
airplane to pick him up. “I want to make his life easy also,
so that he can get to Sabin Metal easier than he can get to any of
my competitors.” Sabin expects to fly even more in the
future. “We want to be a leader in recycling fuel cells,”
he declared, “which means we have 25 new companies we have to
go see. I would not be surprised if in the next two or three years
our amount of flying doubles or triples.”
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