Business Jet Continues Growth at Dallas Love Field

FBO, MRO, and aircraft charter/management and sales provider Business Jet returns to NBAA-BACE with its own 20- by 20-foot booth to highlight a rebranding and expanding facilities and services at Love Field (KDAL) in Dallas. At BACE last year, the company rebranded as simply Business Jet, consolidating its multiple subsidiaries under one name and no longer known as Business Jet Center or Access or Services. The company is also planning a major refurbishment of its Love Field FBO terminal.

“Our philosophy is to grow our base at Love Field,” explained CEO Chris Wright. “This helped us not rely on transient traffic,” he added, and was a big part of why Business Jet didn’t have any layoffs during the Covid pandemic.

Business Jet now has about 100 based tenants and has expanded from 13 to 53 acres on two leaseholds at the busy Dallas airport. The CAA-preferred facility at KDAL since its founding in 2000, Business Jet’s FBO is seeing a nearly even split between transient and based business.

“My grandfather [Bob Wright] started the FBO on service,” Wright said. “He thought the service on the ground should match what you get in the air. Now we compete well with the big FBO chains.”

In 2011, the city of Dallas decommissioned Runway 18/36 at Love Field, and this opened more space at the airport, which was perfect timing for Business Jet’s growth plans. It had taken over the west side leasehold in 2010, after the city issued requests for proposals covering both east and west sides.

“We master planned both sites,” Wright said, “and won both, so we had to build quickly.” This included tearing down an old FBO building and developing the properties, with Business Jet acting as general contractor and bringing in the architect and builders.

Since then, the number of hangars owned by Business Jet has blossomed, with the two most recent under-construction hangars equipped with 28-foot doors to accommodate the largest business jets and tenant office space in the back. One will house a corporate flight department and the other is for individual aircraft and their owners’ office space.

Both hangars will feature epoxy-coated floors, LED lighting, Big Ass-brand ceiling fans, radiant tube heating, electric vehicle charging stations, and integrated utility pedestals providing electricity, water, and compressed air. One of the hangars has conventional sliding doors, while the other is too close to taxiways and requires a 28-foot tilt-up door.

There is still room for expansion, he said, which might be needed. “We’ve never opened a hangar and not been 100% leased.” And there is still more demand for large-cabin jet hangar space. "We have 20 more acres to build on, and we’re studying what makes sense.”

Two 17,000-sq-ft hangars are dedicated for Business Jet’s Part 145 aircraft maintenance repair station, with three mobile AOG vans supporting customers in the area. Business Jet has recently specialized in installation of Starlink satcom systems, with more than a dozen completed so far.

The reason behind the rebranding of Business Jet is that when pilots landed and asked to taxi to the FBO, they would say “Business Jet” without the word “Center,” Wright explained. “As it grew, people didn’t know that ‘Center’ was connected to ‘Services.’ It was a nod to the complete suite of services we can offer.”