STAYING AFLOAT
Galveston’s Island Jet Center looks to the seas for needed boost.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the cruise lines that call Galveston home. But the expected rebound in cruise traffic when the ships return in spring could provide a boon to a business focused on the skies.
Island Jet Center, a fixed-base operator at the historic Scholes International Airport, provides refueling, maintenance and other services for the pilots and passengers of the small general aviation aircraft that visit the island. Jon Tucker, the jet center’s general manager, is reaching out to the major air carriers that fly into Houston airports carrying passengers bound for Galveston cruise ships, to establish an air shuttle service to the island.
“The way it works is you have people from all over the country that are flying into Houston on the major airlines,” he said. “The cruise terminals from the Port of Galveston send out shuttle buses to the airport and each passenger flying into Houston pays from $60 to $80 to shuttle from airport to Galveston.”
“It would really benefit every party, during peak cruise season if they could route flights directly into Galveston,” Tucker said.
If Tucker’s proposal is successful it would return major air carriers to the island for the first time in decades. “There were commercial flights that flew into Galveston before Southwest, United or Continental even existed,” Tucker said.
Colorful history
Owned and operated by the city of Galveston, Scholes Airport is categorized by the Federal Aviation Administration as a general aviation reliever airport for private aviation, corporate travel and air taxi operations. The former Galveston Municipal Airport opened in 1931 and handled Army air operations during World War II.
For a time, it was named Corrigan Airport for aviation pioneer Douglas “Wrong Way” Corrigan, a Galveston native who in 1938 was scheduled to fly from New York to California and instead flew to Ireland.
Today, Island Jet Center provides fuel and services for passengers and pilots, and can arrange auto rentals, hotel reservations on the island and in-flight catering.
“We also offer aircraft handling, hangar space and lavatory servicing,” Tucker said. “If they need air put in their tires, we provide that. If they need to borrow a crew car, we have a couple of loaners.”
For pilots traveling to destinations beyond Galveston, Island Jet Center offers a flight room, where aviators can check the weather and plan the next leg of their flights, a meeting room and pilots lounge.
Landing for lunch
In addition to cruise ship passengers, the jet center caters to the area’s private pilots.
“The average weekend visitors are a family of three or four flying into Galveston,” Tucker said. Some private pilots from South Texas “just fly in to eat lunch and fly back.” The fixedbase operator handles 50 to 100 of such flights a day, he said.
Island Jet Center also transports medical patients, such as children suffering from severe burns, from medical facilities in Mexico, and Central and South America for treatment at Galveston’s Shriner’s Burns Hospital for Children or the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. These flights, which used to arrive about every three to four days, have been curtailed during the pandemic.
For planes traveling from the Southeast to the Southwest, Island Jet Center provides a convenient fueling stop outside of Houston’s more crowded airspace, Tucker said. “We probably get two of those a week, but I’m trying to increase that number,” he said.
Like most small businesses, the jet center has suffered major losses during the pandemic, especially when cruise lines shut down.
“That was a big part of our business, in the summertime mostly, but really as long as the cruises were running,” Tucker said.
When some cruises resume in April, he said, jet center air traffic will begin to rebound. “I think it will be way better than 2020,” he said
Tucker foresees a number of events in 2021 that could boost or continue to hamper his business. “The cruise lines start running again,” he said, “positive. There is another shutdown: Negative. The vaccine gets distributed more: Positive. Houston’s Customs and Border Patrol office allows us to start receiving international flights: Positive. Iron Man race isn’t canceled: Positive.”