Solairus?

[XEMS]

Hey KSJC,

We have been with them for a little over 2 years now. They can be as hands on or hands off as you want, especially for a Part 91 airplane. We have been down the ACM/TWC/Landmark/etc.... road before and I find Solairus no worse, and probably better in most regards.

Pros-

Crews put in expenses by Monday, they are paid by Friday. 95+% of the time.
A small thing, but a BIG DEAL to many crew!

Usually responsive to emails and phone calls. Timely responses.

Payroll is like everywhere else now, easy direct deposit.

I think upper management it truly trying. They are a management company. They aren't in the FBO business or anything like that.

I don't remember the percentage of aircraft they have on their 135 certificate, but it isn't huge. They do charter, but don't seem to be overly focused on that aspect of the business.

Cons-

They seem to like to re-invent the wheel every once in a while. Yearly recurrent indoc has always been back at the home office. They are just starting to roll out an online indoc, but they still want to have you come through home base as much as possible (not a complete con, but sometimes it's just a big hassle to free up several days for indoc!).

They are not the cheapest management company out there, so you might pay more than you did in the past.

They have several separate online portals/programs that you have to pull from to get some of your information. I know they are working on a "One stop shop" idea, but it isn't here yet.

No one on our account is using their benefits, so I really can't speak about them. It's always a shame when your spouse has much better bene's than you do!! Of course that might be a function of my spouse being so much smarter than I am!

They have an up front system for the fees. The aircraft owner pays into a separate account that Solairus can draw down on for expenses. It
works, but it took our accounting team a while to get the hang of it.


All in all, I have no big "Gotcha's" about them. We just completed an operators conference that they put on every year. A bit of company kool aide, but actually pretty informative. They manage well over 130 airplanes now, and seem to have a good handle on most aspects of the company structure. They are just up the road from you, so I would suggest you go up and have a chat. Pretty low key (and Petaluma has some nice restaurants!)