sa国际传媒官网网页入口

There wasn鈥檛 much that could keep Sarah Oberman from opening her own business 鈥� a business she loves.

Oberman was born into an aviation family. She grew up flying in small planes and has spent a career working in aviation. She ran a flight school, was chief marketer for a company that operated jets, and worked for her family鈥檚 fixed base operation. FBOs offer services like fueling, hangaring and airplane maintenance.

Now she鈥檚 in business for herself as a charter broker with her company TruNorth Jets.

Oberman is the middleman between people who want to fly private and operators who do the flying and own the planes. Oberman finds customers and then charters a plane that meets their needs.

The planes have to be the right size for the journey, whether the customers are a basketball team who may want a taller cabin size and larger plane, or a family who want the most economical chartered flight possible. She considers planes鈥� capabilities 鈥� how old is the aircraft? If her client is headed to a remote mountainous area, is the plane short enough to land at a small airport in the mountains, which typically have shorter runways? If they鈥檙e flying coast to coast, can the airplane travel that far without stopping?

鈥淭his time of year in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 and Santa Fe for example, it鈥檚 really important to know the performance of the airplane during takeoff because it鈥檚 so hot,鈥� Oberman said.

She relays any client needs to the operator and makes sure the trip is booked and paid for, then she tracks her clients鈥� flights.

Oberman opened TruNorth Jets a year ago, and she is expanding the footprint of her work in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 and Santa Fe. Although Oberman lives in southern California, she already has New Mexico clients, and she plans to charter more flights out of the Santa Fe Municipal Airport and sa国际传媒官网网页入口 International Sunport.

鈥淵ou have big airline carriers that are based here in sa国际传媒官网网页入口. Santa Fe, it鈥檚 much more limited,鈥� she said. 鈥淯sually, you have to have a connection. So, if you want to go to Palm Beach, Florida for example out of Santa Fe, it鈥檚 going to probably take two connections, so the demand for private travel is there.鈥�

Fuel prices, which have been high for the last two years, are finally beginning to come down, Oberman said.

鈥淧ricing since COVID has been at an all time high, because everybody realized that an airplane is a sanitary capsule. It鈥檚 not flying with the masses in a 737,鈥� she said.

According to Oberman, popular destinations for private flights are New York, Palm Beach, Florida and in wintertime, Aspen, Colorado.

鈥淚 would say that about 70% of my clientele travel for business and so they鈥檙e able to accomplish more by flying private than they do if they鈥檙e flying the airlines,鈥� Oberman said. 鈥淚 have one client who they鈥檙e looking at properties over different state lines, and they made multiple stops, and it was over a three-day period. If they had done that on the airlines, combined with a rental car, it probably would have taken them a week or more, because they were remote locations. It鈥檚 just a really efficient business tool.鈥�

When it comes to her own plane preferences, the faster, the bigger, the better.

鈥淚 might say one of my favorite types would be a Citation Latitude, which is a super midsize aircraft, or the Longitude, which is the bigger one of that same family. I also love the Challenger 350 or 300. Those are all in the super midsize category, so they鈥檒l go coast to coast non-stop. But getting into something bigger like a Gulfstream is always great too, because then you can go pretty much anywhere nonstop.鈥�

Her advice for other entrepreneurs with a burning passion to open their own business is just do it.

鈥淒on鈥檛 wait. Give it a go. It鈥檚 the best thing I鈥檝e ever done,鈥� Oberman said.