CLS Transportation extends its reach with GIISP, LJ31A

By Grant McLaren

Professional Pilot Magazine January 2001

Starting in the early 80s with a single car, CLS has become a giant in the private transportation world by offering clients the use of executive jets.

CLS Transportation President and Founder Charlie Horky always looks forward to Academy Award night. Among the world's largest private ground transportation operators, CLS enjoys peaks in demand for limos whenever such big high-end media events take place. Fleets of CLS limos will be repositioned to Los Angeles from as far afield as Las Vegas and San Francisco for these big Hollywood extravaganzas and simultaneous demand is often generated for CLS's Gulfstream IISP and Lear 31A charter fleet.

With fleets of over 550 charter surface vehicles nationwide, based out of Los Angeles, Aspen, Las Vegas, San Francisco and New York, plus a turbine fleet which includes the IISP, Lear 31A and a sixteenth share in an EJA Citation X, CLS is in a unique position in terms of the variety of transportation options it's able to offer its customers.

"We never expected to grow this big and we've become the only transportation company in the business to tie together fleets of limos and sophisticated jet aircraft," says Horky who built the company up from a single limo operation back in the early 80s. "Over the years we've never been afraid to take risks. Many people will buy one limo and then plan to buy a second if they can get enough business. Our thought process has been that if we can buy 20 limos then we're not going to have to make excuses to our clients about why we can't service them."

Today, CLS has a reputation for providing the best limos, the best drivers and the best service in the country. On the turbine front, the company IISP flies charter schedules averaging 70 hours a month within North America, to Hawaii and to Europe and it's turned out to be a perfect complement to the ground transport service.

"We've been able to fill our IISP charter schedule with customers from the limo side of the business," says Horky. "Entertainment industry clientele, as well as Fortune 500 customers, like this addition to our service and they've been keeping our airplanes busy."

CLS's aviation division is a small 3 person operation out of VNY (Van Nuys CA). Chief Pilot Dennis Wren, Capt Paul Strauss and Director of Maintenance Tim Hanousek support the CLS fleet and bring in contract pilot and maintenance talent as required.

"We run a compact flight department and we're still trying to determine an optimum number of pilots for our operations," explains Wren, a 4500 hour TT military trained pilot. "We like the flexibility of a small operation but the more pilots we have the easier it becomes to schedule our missions."

Limo evolution 

Charlie Horky's first job out of high school, back in the late 70's, was a stint working for Larry Flynt Publications CEO Larry Flynt (see Pro Pilot March 1998) as a double-barrel shotgun toting guard at his under-construction home in Bel-Air CA. He then took a job with a company in Los Angeles that pioneered the luxury rent-a-car-market, becoming lot manager at age 19.

"I met a guy back then who suggested I go into the limo business," recalls Horky. "We started with one car and the deal was that if I could make something out of it I'd own half the business. He lost interest after three years, I bought him out and I ended up with four limos."

A problem with another business partner in the mid-80s almost put Horky out of business and left him with nothing but the limo service phone number and $10,000 in the company bank account.

"I went to a car leasing company in Santa Monica and said "Look, I need one limo to get started again," recalls Horky. "I gave them half a million dollars worth of canceled checks, from past limo clients including Michael Jackson, Jimmy Buffet and others, along with the $10,000. They gave me a limo."

A series of opportunities and lucky breaks propelled the business forward over the years. CLS got hooked up with southern California's leading concert promoter and developed a thriving business in moving Rock and Roll bands around the area. Then, a chance meeting with a fellow in charge of the transportation needs of the Brunei Royal family initiated lucrative limo contracts out of Los Angeles, New York, Orlando and Las Vegas.

"The first time I bought them a $575,000 bill for one week of services in Las Vegas I was a little nervous," Horky remembers. "But, the guy looked at it, shrugged his shoulders and said 'I thought it was going to be more.' We were literally Fed Ex'ing bulletproof Mercedes limos back and forth across the country. It brought a new meaning to the 'absolutely, positively has to be there overnight' concept."

In 1994 CLS acquired its first corporate aircraft, a Lear 24, and the limo business continued to grow and prosper. In 1999 CLS sales grew 30% and they were up another 30% in 2000. Today the objective for privately-held CLS is to provide the best service in the industry with the best cars, best drivers and best charter jets.

"I was lucky enough to get into the limo business at the right time," says Horky. "We've succeeded over the years because we genuinely care about our clientele and there's nothing we won't do to satisfy the client."

Flight ops 

Horky bought his initial Lear 24 primarily for corporate transportation but soon began chartering it to offset ownership costs. It quickly turned out that having sophisticated turbine aircraft available for charter enhanced the image and versatility of CLS's limo business. "It was a perfect combination. Having the availability of charter jets added a new dimension to our business," recalls Horky. "Our aviation division opened up a whole new arena in our ability to supply a complete range of services to our customers."

CLS soon traded up to a Lear 35 to better handle coast-to-coast charter requirements and then added a Raytheon Hawker 600 to the fleet to offer a larger cabin charter alternative. When a one-owner low-time Gulfstream II became available in 1998 CLS was again inspired to trade-up from the Hawker to this next level of cabin spaciousness and capability. Although the price of the GII was attractive, and CLS had built up considerable trade-in equity with its Hawker 600, the larger aircraft turned out to be a completely different world in terms of maintenance and support requirements.

"Buying a GII is not the hard part, it's maintaining and supporting it," advises Horky. "After owning a large jet for two years I can tell you that there's nothing you can do in your life that will scare you anymore. However, everything worked out fine and we've been very pleased with the aircraft."

CLS elected to performance-enhance its GII with Aviation Partners Blended Winglets prior to taking delivery making its flagship charter aircraft even more aesthetically appealing and productive.

"With the Aviation Partners Blended Winglet system we can operate coast-to-coast nonstop, we can fly to Hawaii against greater headwind components and a IISP is a much more practical airplane to Europe," notes Horky. "You can't beat the return for the dollar invested in a IISP and the winglet system really modernizes the GII and makes it look like a newer-generation Gulfstream."

Today, CLS runs its IISP on a busy charter schedule out of VNY while operating its Lear 31A primarily as a corporate transport. With limo fleets positioned coast-to-coast, the 31A has turned out to be an ideal corporate shuttle. When not managing his geographically dispersed limo fleets, Horky performs in the rodeo circuit and the 31A has been an extremely useful vehicle in this area as well.

"The Lear 31A has been an ideal, and very dependable, aircraft for us," notes Wren. "We fly all over the country visiting our limo fleets and attending rodeos in Oklahoma and Montana. Average corporate utilization has been about 40 hours a month."

To boost the flexibility of its corporate airlift, CLS recently acquired a one-sixteenth share in an EJA Citation X. Meanwhile, Horky has become a big believer in the fractional ownership concept.

"There are plenty of people who still want to have a traditional flight department but fractional ownership has the unique advantage of making business aircraft available to so many more individuals and companies. It's made owning and operating a corporate airplane much more simple and affordable."

Managing flight ops 

Wren points out that there are both pros and cons to consider in working for a smaller flight department. "Running a small flight department can be very rewarding over the longrun and you become a Jack of all trades. But, you don't have access to all the internal support you'd have from a larger flight department and it's often difficult scheduling vacation time."

As chief pilot, and 1 of only 2 on-payroll CLS pilots, Wren is faced with hiring contract pilots in the VNY area to keep his IISP and Lear 31A crewed. "I spend a lot of time on the phone trying to find contract pilots. The market for full time and contract pilots is very tight these days. Qualified pilots are just not out there as they once were."

Salaries at CLS's aviation division are better than industry average and job benefits are attractive.

"Charlie is a very generous guy and the pay and benefits are only the beginning when you're working for CLS," adds Wren. "The job involves a very personal interactive environment, we often attend rodeos with the boss and sometimes we have company limos pick us up at our destinations and chauffeur us all over town."

Wren believes in having at least 2 pilots on the company payroll, bringing in contract pilots as required, rather than having aircraft looked after exclusively by an outside management company. "It's definitely worthwhile having your own pilots and at least one mechanic, you can run a more cost effective operation with better oversight. Each aircraft has its own idiosyncrasies and it's important to have some level of consistency in crewing the aircraft. Strictly contract people tend not to care as much for the airplane -- they often do the minimum that has to be done and then off they go."

Typical operations for CLS's Lear 31A are 1 to 2 hour flight sectors, with 2 -3 legs a day, on primarily corporate support missions. Meanwhile, the IISP boards a lot of concert tours, and promo tours for celebrities, and it's often away from base for a week to a month at a time.

"Our flight routines and trips vary greatly," observes Wren. "We're home most nights but we can also be away for weeks at a time. On average, we're doing about 8 - 10 RONs a month."

CLS has been happy with its GII's performance-enhancing winglet system from Aviation Partners. Climb performance and initial cruise altitudes are boosted, handling qualities are improved and range is improved better than 200nm. The IISP has never had to stop for fuel returning to VNY from New York and trips can be planned to Hawaii against headwinds that would ground a straight-wing GII.

Maintenance 

Dir. of Maintenance Tim Hanousek also prefers working with a smaller flight operation as it can be a lower stress lifestyle, with less politics involved, than being involved with a large flight department. With the IISP and the Lear 31A based at FBOs, currently Clay Lacy Aviation and previously Jet West, Hanousek will hire contract maintenance facilities, equipment and talent as needed. He advises that even with a smaller flight department it's important to have you own in-house director of maintenance.

"Even with a one or two aircraft it's very important to have your own maintenance person on the payroll," suggests Hanousek who previously worked with Jet West and Raytheon Aircraft Services at VNY. "You have much better control over cost, you can take the aircraft where you want for better deals and you generally improve dispatch reliability by bringing the maintenance function in-house."

Hanousek accomplishes all line maintenance, and some heavy maintenance, on the Gulfstream and Lear 31A in-house but will generally contract out engine removal and avionics work. Both CLS aircraft have been relatively trouble-free. The Lear 31A, acquired earlier this year, is a 1992 model with just 3000 hours on the airframe while the GII (S/N 019) is an older 1-owner aircraft previously operated by the Mellon Bank in Virginia. Product support has been good on both aircraft, particularly on the Lear 31A, and Hanousek keeps only a small parts inventory on-hand preferring, instead, to take advantage of overnight parts delivery as required.

During a recent 72-month inspection, the IISP was outfitted with TCASII, upgraded radios, satphone, an entertainment system and an interior refurb. CLS's Lear 31A is fitted with a UNS-1B FMS which has, according to Hanousek, been supported superbly by Universal Avionics.

Although monthly utilization rates can top 70 hours on the IISP and up to 100 hours on the Lear 31A Hanousek reports that there's been no real problem in supporting such rigorous flying regimes. With aircraft utilization rates extremely high throughout the industry these days there can be occasional glitches in manufacturer part and component availability. When CLS's IISP took FOD in its left Rolls-Royce Spey engine last summer it tore up the compressor and the company had to put the aircraft down for a 90 day engine repair as the next available loaner engine was on a 6 month waitlist.

Future directions 

While CLS has considered acquiring a GIV, due to a huge charter demand for such aircraft these days, the likelihood is that CLS will stay with its IISP.

"There are a lot of contracts today, especially for celebrity clientele, that say you can't fly anyone around in anything less than a GIII. This totally eliminates our IISP from some potential business," points out Horky. "But, while GIVs are great for international charters, such as the Los Angeles to Cairo market, we'll always have clientele for our GII. There are more people able to pay $40,000 to go to New York than $60,000 - $70,000, and the GII offers similar cabin comfort and speed."

CLS plans to focus on growing its limo business rather than diversifying too much farther into the turbine charter market.

"If I were to go into another business I'd definitely want to be in the aviation business. But, at this point, I'm not looking to expand my aviation interests much beyond what we have now," says Horky. "It's hard enough to do one thing really well and I've been very fortunate to have been successful in the business I'm in. To be in the jet charter business in a big way, and to do it well, you really have to be able to devote your full attention to it."

Opportunities in the fractional ownership market offer tangible temptations. CLS was recently awarded the contract to handle all of EJA's ground transportation worldwide and the company is looking to an even closer association with the fractional ownership world.

"We bought a 1/16 share in a Citation X and it was a loss leader so to speak," explains Horky. "We believe the fractional ownership product is very well positioned and we'd like to sell their product to our clientele. We may even put our IISP on EJA's certificate."

As for corporate travel requirements, CLS's Lear 31A has proven to be an almost perfect corporate transport and it will remain on the flightline for the foreseeable future. For CLS's internal travel needs, Charlie Horky prefers an in-house flight department approach with his own pilots and maintenance talent.

"I prefer having a traditional flight department for our own corporate travel needs," explains Horky. "Although we've had some exceptional contract pilots I prefer having people I know flying and maintaining our aircraft. Having our own corporate aviation has been a great benefit to our corporate growth over the years and business aircraft will continue to be mission critical tools for us into the foreseeable future."