While Aero Charter may be an unusual name for the FBO at Spirit of St. Louis Airport (KSUS), it harkens back nearly a half century to the start of the family-owned company. John Morgenthaler Jr.’s father started it in 1978 as an aircraft charter and management provider, and over the ensuing years, it expanded to encompass more services, including FAA Part 145 maintenance, a full avionics shop, hangarage, and finally FBO services in 2008.
“We kind of just added on more pieces as we saw a need for it,” said Morgenthaler, who joined the family business in 1988 and serves as its CEO. “We’re the only full-service FBO in St. Louis,” he told AIN. “Everybody has known us over the years, so if we changed our name, we’d kind of lose who we were.”
One of three service providers at KSUS, and the only independent one, the complex has a 4,000-sq-ft terminal that dates back to 1998. It was extensively remodeled in 2017 and features a passenger lobby with a refreshment bar, concierge, pilot lounge with quiet room, shower facilities, two conference rooms seating eight and 12 respectively, a 30-seat training room, onsite car rental (through St. Louis’ own Enterprise), and crew cars.
KSUS has U.S. Customs and Border Protection service with advance notice, and arriving aircraft must first stop at the customs ramp before proceeding to the FBO.
“They have an independent agent that’s here, and if you can’t work with them on their hours, they try to get someone from St. Louis Lambert International (KSTL) over, so you have to let them know when you are coming,” Morgenthaler explained.
For fueling, all the service providers on the field draw from the airport’s Phillips 66-supplied fuel farm, which holds 160,000 gallons of jet-A and 40,000 gallons of avgas. Like the others, Aero Charter has its own equipment: two 3,000-gallon jet fuel tankers and a 1,300-gallon 100LL truck, all operated by the company’s NATA Safety 1st-trained line staff. Last year, the company pumped 1.6 million gallons of fuel.
Occupying an eight-acre leasehold, more than half of it ramp, the complex—open 24/7—has 54,000 sq ft of heated hangar space capable of accommodating the latest ultra-long-range business jets. It is home to 30 turbine-powered aircraft ranging from a Daher TBM turboprop single to a Dassault 7X tri-jet. Attached to the hangars, it has an additional 18,000 sq ft of office space.
Morgenthaler sees his company as the hometown favorite at KSUS, which serves as a reliever to Lambert, and instructs his team “to treat every customer as if they are your family.”
“Our mission is to provide personalized service, to maintain an uncompromising level of safety, and to deliver 100% customer satisfaction,” he said. “Whether it’s a [Cessna] 172 or a [Bombardier] Global, you’ll get treated with good care.”
The facility, with its staff of 78 across all the business units, averages more than 5,200 operations a year, and according to Morgenthaler, it claims a quarter of the business at KSUS, including many of the aeromedical flights.
As one of the company’s charter pilots, he remembered flying a critical organ donation flight on a snowy winter day. “I was returning to St. Louis with a medical team, and the ambulance was having a hard time getting to the airport,” he said, adding that the flight was carrying a transplant heart that needed to get to the Children’s Hospital patient as soon as possible.
“Our plow truck was taking a break from plowing the ramp, so I drove the doctor and the heart to the hospital in the super duty pickup truck, coordinating with local police support for lights and sirens on the highway. I figured in the worst case we just put the plow down and keep going.” Through that swift decision, the heart was delivered on time, and a child’s life was saved.