A 22,000-square-foot hanger and terminal at Waukesha County Airport is expected to be completed in the first half of 2025 and is one of several developments underway for Jet OUT, a Milwaukee-based private jet charter and co-ownership company. Jet OUT is growing not only in Waukesha, but also in South Florida where it plans to expand into an existing fixed base operator (FBO) owned by Fort Lauderdale-based Sheltair Aviation. In September, former sister company Jet IN’s Milwaukee operations were acquired by Jet Aviation, a subsidiary of Virginia-based aerospace and defense company General Dynamics. BizTimes reporter Sonia Spitz recently spoke with Gordon Cameron, Jet OUT’s vice president of revenue, regarding the growth of the company and what it means for aviation in the Midwest and the Milwaukee area.
Aviation in the Midwest
“When you look at the map of aviation in the country, the Midwest is an underserved market in general, specifically with light jets. There’s no one providing access to new airplanes in the midwestern market. Our CEO, Joseph Crivello, grew up around here and he’s a Milwaukee-first person, which I love. We’ve got this great midwestern attitude that permeates throughout our business. We’re excited to unlock and expand our headquarters here. About 85% of (Jet OUT) employees are based here in Milwaukee, and we will continue to see that throughout the growth into next year and the years after.”
Milwaukee-centric motive
“We hire (locally) first, so salespeople, back-of-house, 24-hour dispatch and concierge staff, all that is Milwaukee-based. That’s the talent pool that we predominantly pull from. We look to hire at HQ first and if we’re unable to hire there, or it’s a satellite job where you need to be on site, we’ll go down to Florida where our next location is. We’ve got a little over 100 (employees) and it’s a dynamic number based on pilots. We’ve got 50 to 75 pilots at one time and right now we’re closer to 65.”
Anticipating more growth
“I’m excited about diversifying Milwaukee and the talent pool. Again, there’s not a lot of aviation companies (in the Milwaukee area), so being kind of the predominant player in the space is really exciting for us. I think Milwaukee is known for a number of other industries, but certainly not aviation. I’m also excited about the amount of people we’re hiring and the growth that we’re going to have. My guess is we’ll be at about 120 (employees) next year, and that’s 50% office staff. That’s a pretty good boom for the local city. In addition, you talk about partnerships and how the revenue trickles down. There’s a lot of good in here for the city of Milwaukee and for the state of Wisconsin.”
