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customers at Business Aviation Man- agement, we began to build a team of believers in offering superior customer service at Salt Lake City.”
Prior to Keystone’s Million Air ac- quisition, the FBO was mainly just sell- ing fuel. There were two maintenance technicians on staff, but they weren’t really focusing on growing the main- tenance business. That was all about to change. And along with Million Air SLC, the group was eyeing potential operations in Provo, Utah, about 40 miles away. In addition, they were buy- ing up and bringing in businesses with expertise in aircraft and parts sales and distributorships, as well as charter, management, brokerage and mainte- nance services. The clientele ranged from operators of single-engine pistons to large business jets – and airlines.
Million Air SLC got into the airline ground handling business, including fueling, baggage and cargo handling, push-back services, ground service equipment and some line mainte- nance. “Some of our customer air- lines asked us to handle their retail cargo, which allowed their customers to drop off the package at our facility,” Haberstock said at the time. “Then we do all the paperwork, screening, and put the package onboard the air- plane. Inbound, we unload the pack- ages from the airplane and move them to our facility for customer pick-up.” Million Air SLC also provided retail cargo services for five airlines and line work for nine. One airline also contracted out both baggage and car- go handling to Million Air. And with ten deicing trucks at SLC, they were even taking care of deicing services for seven airlines.
However, their primary goal was growing the general aviation business and bringing products and services to market that would help their custom- ers and be profitable at the same time. “We tried to be a company that would help introduce new people to general aviation, and at the same time, support those already involved,” Haberstock said. “If we felt that we could make money with a particular service or capability and at the same time pro- vide a better product for the customer, that’s what we would do. [Maintenance]
Keystone’s charter fleet ranges from the Pilatus PC-12 to Phenom 100 to Gulfstream 200, among others.
was seen as a natural, complementary component to fuel sales as well as air- craft management, charter, sales and brokerage services,” he said.
In 2001, as luck would have it, the city of Provo released a request for proposal (RFP) for a company to come in and develop a new FBO at Provo’s municipal airport. They had already been considering Provo as an expan- sion area. With the successes they had demonstrated in Salt Lake City, they easily won the RFP and imme- diately bought the existing general aviation services infrastructure at Provo, which included two FBOs. New hangars and a terminal were built. The new Million Air Provo boasted around 28,000 square feet of hangar space, with maintenance conducted under Million Air SLC’s Class IV Part 145 certificate, bringing the combined hangar space to almost 80,000 square feet between the two city’s facilities.
Since Haberstock had brought his Part 135 charter certificate along with him when Keystone was formed, the team was also inclined to grow that part of the business. Their managed f leet, also on the charter certificate, boasted charter capabilities ranging from Pilatus PC-12s all the way up to Gulfstream G550s. In fact, Million Air SLC was one of the first charter or- ganizations to implement a robust safety management system (SMS), which further separated the opera- tion and helped solidify trust with its customers.
As Million Air expanded in SLC and Provo, the Keystone umbrella also
expanded into aircraft sales. Its sub- sidiary, IntermountainAir, became Piper’s exclusive distributor for sev- eral western states. Two DBAs of In- termountainAir, Northwest Aircraft and Arizona Piper, managed sales for the Pacific Northwest and Arizo- na, respectively.
By the end of 2009, after almost 15 years of success in Utah and abroad, Haberstock evaluated what he thought the future would require and how Keystone could continue its success. He said, “The important thing to ask is, ‘Can we as an industry introduce people to general aviation in a simple and economically justifiable manner?’ Really, that’s the challenge right now. I think we can.”
Fast forward a few years to May 19, 2012. A press release from The Arnold Companies announces the acquisition of Keystone Aviation by TAC Air, im- mediately expanding its FBO presence to the west with the facilities at SLC and Provo. The FBOs would immediately be rebranded as TAC Air. “This move brings many positive things to the us- ers of SLC and PVU, as well as the other TAC Air locations,” stated TAC Air’s then-VP & COO Christian Sasfai, who is now president of Stevens Aerospace & Defense. “We’re going to deliver the best of both operations to our custom- ers in the 14 markets we serve.”
All of the other Keystone subsid- iaries were to be rebranded under the Keystone Aviation brand. Haber- stock was to continue his leadership role as president of Keystone Avi- ation, with all other supporting cast
December 2022 / TWIN & TURBINE • 19