Darden Restaurants Closes Corporate Flight Department

Darden Restaurants–which owns chains such as Olive Garden, LongHorn Steakhouse and The Capital Grill–closed its corporate aviation flight department on Tuesday in the wake of a larger restructuring that led to leadership changes and strategic actions intended to reduce operating costs. The company said it ceased flight operations “immediately” and expects to sell its Cessna Citation Sovereign “in due course.” It previously disposed of a Citation Sovereign and Hawker 850XP, according to a spokesman. At one time, its flight department had 12 employees (six pilots, three maintenance technicians, a scheduler/dispatcher, a director of maintenance and an aviation director).