Story ID: 412SunAir
Sun Air Solidifies Southern California Bases
By: Matt Thurber
Caption: The Camarillo, Calif.-based company offers aircraft charter/management, maintenance, FBO and film location services.
Word Count: 1072
Sun Air Jets has grown from a small aircraft management firm based at Camarillo Airport in Southern California, to a large charter/management firm with its own maintenance facility and full-service FBO as well as a base in nearby Van Nuys. Most recently, Sun Air opened its new film division, Film Sun Air, to make its facilities available for movies, commercials or video shoots.

Sun Air is now a Signature Select FBO, having previously been part of the Exxon Avitat then Air Elite networks. Sun Air is exhibiting here at the NBAA show at the Signature Flight Support booth (N3505).

What sets Sun Air apart, according to president and COO Brian Counsil, is the value-added services that it offers to aircraft management customers. When he hired on with Sun Air’s founder and owner, Counsil was first tasked with helping operate the owner’s aircraft as economically as possible. With a background as a tax attorney and accountant, Counsil applied his business skills to the challenge. “I’m a business person,” he said. “I look at it from a business and financial perspective.”

This perspective drives value-added services for aircraft owners who sign up for Sun Air’s management program. Fundamentally this means doing what any management company should do: enhance, promote and protect the owner’s valuable asset, the airplane. “Because of Sun Air’s owner being a customer of this industry first, he had the benefit of his own experience,” Counsil explained. “We learned what it’s like to own and maintain and operate aircraft. Now we do for our owners as we do for ourselves.”

What this means, he said, “is that it transfers into more granular activities.” This includes an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) policy review, tax planning, sales and use tax considerations, insurance issues and property, excise and income taxes.

Most owners have their own tax and accounting advisors, Counsil acknowledged, but they aren’t necessarily educated in aspects of aircraft ownership and all the confusing issues that it raises. For example, when the owner uses the aircraft for personal purposes, making sure that is properly recorded, including all applicable and allowable deductible expenses. “It helps owners who have advisors, when they don’t understand aircraft,” he said. “I bridge that gap.”

Another example is the issue of the federal excise tax (FET) that must be paid for each leg of a charter flight. The IRS has been trying to assess the FET on aircraft management fees and other charges that owners pay to management companies, especially in situations where it isn’t clear who the pilots work for. The key to making sure the FET isn’t improperly assessed to aircraft owners who also place their aircraft on Sun Air’s charter certificate is the way the management contract is worded, and making sure pilots are clearly employed by the proper entity. This is an issue that non-aviation advisors to aircraft owners often don’t understand.

“I manage how the contract is written,” Counsil said, “and pilot activities. You bring good facts by being aware of the rules, and being diligent by building a case before you need it. Our clients have not had that problem [with the FET]. We structure the airplane so it works for the reason they own it and not so they get painted into a corner with the tax authorities.”

Other ways the value-added service helps owners is by assisting with processing the paperwork for a sales tax exemption during an aircraft purchase, and protecting all the documents involved with the aircraft to help maintain the aircraft’s value. “They get a lot of free advice from us,” he said.

On the charter front, the Sun Air fleet’s midsize, super-midsize and heavy jets are most popular, especially those that can fly coast-to-coast, including a Citation X, Challenger 601 and 604, Global 5000, Hawker 800XP and 1000 and five Gulfstreams through a 550. The smallest airplane is a King Air 200, and the light jet fleet includes a Hawker 400XP, CitationJet and Phenom 100.

Sun Air does have a maintenance operation, but this is primarily for its own aircraft, although the company will help out a stranded customer at Camarillo.

Hollywood Calling

The new film division takes advantage of Sun Air’s locations in Camarillo and Van Nuys, the nearly perfect Southern California weather and the proximity of plenty of filming activity in the region. “We’re getting proficient at the process of production,” Counsil said. “It’s a way to make good use of our assets.” This includes not only the company’s facilities but also the aircraft in its fleet, some of which are owned by Sun Air’s owner and thus can be easily available for filming.

Managing the filming process at an airport means working closely with airport management, which means Los Angeles World Airports in the case of Van Nuys and Ventura County for Camarillo Airport. “They’re easy to work with,” he said. “We have to be diligent to make sure people don’t filter onto taxiways. We have safety briefings and manage the process.”

Recent film projects include a Hyundai commercial, The Bachelor, and the Fuse TV show Big Freedia, according to Sun Air.

“Van Nuys has always been on the radar of the film community when it comes to filming aviation-related footage or stills, but a lot of location scouts are not as familiar with Camarillo Airport,” said Sun Air director of business development Kim Scolari. “What they might have missed is that Camarillo is an extremely film-friendly environment. The facility in Camarillo is an especially perfect location due to its gorgeous views, breathtaking sunsets and surrounding mountains. The atmosphere and lighting are a director’s dream. Film Sun Air does it all for you, whether you need a hangar for the day as a set, or a ramp or interior jet shot, we can quite easily accommodate the request.”

The Sun Air FBO in Camarillo consists of more than 120,000 sq ft of hangar space, crew lounge with satellite TV, sleep rooms and showers, a modern kitchen, concierge services, conference rooms and a spacious open two-story lobby area. Passengers can be driven on to the Sun Air ramp, and the entire facility has 24/7 video security monitoring.