High Flying Commuters

which has more than 2,000 employees worldwide. “Up here, people think [this

lifestyle] is unique, but in Florida they don’t think it’s unique,” he says in

a phone interview from Jamestown. “It’s very good when you’re running a

company, from the sense that you can get away from a lot of the day-to-day

things and think more clearly in a different environment. The sunshine alone is

a factor.”

Turnaround specialist Malone also leads a busy social

schedule in Naples. He and his wife, Linda, are involved in community

organizations and fund-raising events like the Naples Winter Wine Festival. The

festival’s board of directors includes a number of nationally prominent

executives who live in Naples but frequently travel the country. Although

Malone may be away from Naples from Monday through Thursday (he co-owns a plane

and sometimes flies commercially), he rarely misses a weekend in Naples, where

he enjoys outdoor pursuits such as golfing and fishing. “It’s a rare week when

I don’t run into somebody who says, ‘Oh, gosh, you live in Naples, I’ve been

thinking about doing something like that,’” he says. “You want to prepare

yourself for the retirement that will eventually come. Certainly, I’m not

retired. I go full time, but at some point in time that’s not going to be the

case, and I want to already be located where I end up spending my time.”

Accessories buyer Kutzler, on the other hand, says that one

drawback is that it’s tough to meet people with her schedule. “You travel so

much and it’s hard to make a commitment because you’re going to be leaving,”

she says. “Your banker is about the only person you come in contact with. Once

you have DSL, there’s no one else you need to know.”

Eyeing the Business Commuter

Although local airports can’t break passenger traffic

figures into categories for business and leisure travelers, they are beginning

to look more closely at the business commuter. Naples Municipal, founded during

World War II and now managed by the City of Naples Airport Authority, and

Southwest Florida International, which is undergoing a $356 million expansion,

are separately surveying the needs of business travelers.

“We don’t have any good information related to business

travel,” admits Gail Cureton, director of communications for Naples Municipal.

“We want to find out how many people fly, in terms of business travel, and if

people are bypassing us. I suspect many business travelers bypass us to drive

40 minutes” to Southwest Florida International.

Southwest Florida International is in the midst of a

two-year project to determine its ratio of business-to-leisure travelers, an

important statistic for luring additional airlines or flights. More than 10,000

business travelers in Charlotte, Collier and Lee counties recently received a

survey asking questions including how often they fly and whether or not their

company is located here. The second part of the project involves passenger

surveys.

Airport spokeswoman Susan Sanders says she knows of

Southwest Florida-based professionals and semi-retired executives who travel

weekly, and she uses anecdotal evidence in discussions with airlines. “We don’t

have numbers, but we know for a fact that is something that makes this market

different,” she says. “We may not have a typical business market like the

airlines are used to finding in Tampa, Miami or Orlando. We feel we have a

strong atypical business market that could support the business levels that

they need.”

Area private aviation companies say the number of business

travelers is growing, and they have customers whose departure schedules are so

predictable that they know to expect their call. The growth could reflect a

number of factors: more executives moving to Southwest Florida, corporate

fliers choosing general aviation over commercial flights because of post-Sept.

11 concerns, and more opportunities for business in Southwest Florida. Jet 1’s

Phillips, for example, estimates that about 70 percent of his clients are

corporate travelers.

“What makes Naples convenient to a lot of executives [is

they] can be anywhere in the Midwest or Northeast within two-and-a-half hours

maximum from Naples by jet,” says Naples jeweler Bruce Thalheimer, a pilot and

president-elect of Friends of the Municipal Airport.

As a result, some aviation companies are prospering.

PrivateSky Aviation Services, an independent maintenance service center that

specializes in Gulfstream aircraft, is more than doubling the size of its

facility at Southwest Florida International to 30 acres. Founder Vincent M.

Wolanin says clients include chairmen of major corporations (who may have

retired but still are busy with board duties and speaking engagements), current

executives and celebrities who are Southwest Florida residents and use their

jets several times a week.

At Naples Municipal, individual executives and companies

like Collier Enterprises, Health Management Associates, WCI Communities,

Beasley Broadcast Group and Germain Automotive use corporate aircraft daily.

Living in Naples and conducting business elsewhere has become quite simple.

“Between the Internet and computers and that airplane, they

can conduct their business and be the chairman or chief executive officer of

any corporation and be anywhere in the world,” Thalheimer says.