FBO Profile: Hill Aircraft

In 1955, the very first McDonalds restaurant opened, the Vietnam War began between the armies of North and South Vietnam, Disneyland made its debut and Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger in Montgomery, Ala. That same year, former U.S. Navy World War II pilot and later Eastern Airlines mechanic Guy Hill Sr. acquired a leasehold at Fulton County Airport-Brown Field (FTY) in Atlanta and established Hill Aircraft and Leasing. Sixty years later, the family-owned business is going strong, as an FBO providing the Georgia airport with a full slate of services, including aircraft sales, maintenance, charter and management.

The company, the oldest FBO in the Atlanta area, occupies its second terminal building, which was built in 1978 and renovated in time for Hill Aircraft’s golden anniversary in 2005. The two-story building, sandwiched between a pair of 20,000-sq-ft hangars, provides 12,000 sq ft of space, and in honor of its anniversary this year the company refurbished the customer service desk area as well as one of those adjoining hangars. Along with the business offices, the terminal offers a passenger lobby/lounge, pilots’ lounge with widescreen TV and theater seating flight-planning room; snooze room; shower facilities; concierge service; courtesy cars; business center; onsite car rental; and three conference rooms (seating eight, 10 and 12), the largest of which is A/V-equipped. While freshly popped popcorn is now common in FBOs across the country, Hill claims to be one of the first to provide the treat to passengers and crews.

The FBO is open seven days a week from 6 a.m. until 11 p.m., with after-hours callout service available and used quite frequently. “There are only two control towers in the state of Georgia that are 24/7,” company president Larry Westbrook told AIN. “One is Hartsfield [International]; the other is our airport, so that’s a big plus for us.” U.S. Customs and Immigration clearance is also available 24/7 with a day’s notice.

The facility, one of two service providers who split the business at FTY equally, occupies 23 acres at the airport, with enough ramp space to host the static display at NBAA’s annual convention when it visited Atlanta in 2007. It has 200,000 sq ft of hangar space and can shelter aircraft up to a G450. Westbrook told AIN the company has plans to add another 22,500-sq-ft hangar–to accommodate the latest ultra-long-range bizjets–in the next 24 to 36 months. Hill Aircraft is home to 40 turbine-powered aircraft, from a Challenger 604 to a King Air 90.

A Phillips 66-branded dealer and member of the AirElite FBO Network, the location pumps about a million gallons of fuel a year. Its tank farm holds 24,000 gallons of jet-A and half that amount of 100LL. It is served by a trio of refuelers (a pair of 3,000-gallon jet-A tankers and a 1,000-gallon avgas truck) operated by its NATA Safety 1st-trained line service technicians, part of the company’s 34 full-time and 10 part-time staff.

Business this year has been “excellent,” according to Westbrook, certainly its best after the lean years following the economic downturn. “Like a lot of folks we just adjusted our overhead in line with our sales and dug in and made it work,” he said. “We learned a lot through that process.” This year the airport is on track to handle 65,000 operations. Business tends to be busier in the spring and fall, but most of Hill’s traffic is corporate and not seasonal. Among the events that boost traffic to the location are trade shows at the nearby Georgia World Congress Center, vendor conferences at Atlanta-based Home Depot (which maintains its flight department at FTY) and college football’s SEC Championship game, which is played at the Georgia Dome.

The company operates an FAA Part 145 repair station and a parts shop. It works mostly on Citations, Learjets and King Airs and can perform major inspections, but it will handle line maintenance on any business aircraft.

Hill Aircraft also has a Part 135 certificate and added three aircraft to its certificate this year. Westbrook believes the Part 135 business offers the company the most growth potential. “We feel we can build the company the best with managed airplanes because it drives income for line service, maintenance, hangar and charter,” he explained. “You can take only so much of your competitor’s business no matter who they are, and they can take only so much of yours.”

While the company’s mission statement reads “To provide service to the aviation community in the most professional manner possible while maintaining our integrity, providing cost-effective solutions for our customers, and improving the lives of our employees and community,” Westbrook, who has been with the company for 34 years, sums up his customer service philosophy even more succinctly. “The customer is king,” he said.

To give back to the aviation industry, the company sponsors an annual scholarship at Auburn University’s flight school in the name of late company founder Guy Hill, Sr. “The recipient of that scholarship is offered a paid internship as a charter copilot after college,” said Westbrook, in describing the two-year program named after his father-in-law. “Students get out of school with 600 to 700 hours and we help them bridge that gap to the 1,500 they need for their ATP.”