By James McNair
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Albert Pod, president and CEO of Executive Jet Management, in the doorway of a Dassault Falcon 2000 jet in the company's hanger at Lunken Airport. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

Corporations are saying no to spending. Consumer confidence is at a nine-year low. The U.S. economy is barely beating.

And in Cincinnati, the nation's largest charter jet company is adding planes, employees and service as if the recession never happened.

The growth of Executive Jet Management appears to defy reason. While the business world slumbers on, the 39-year-old company based at Lunken Airport is somehow expanding the size of its fleet beyond that of many countries' air forces. Last year's 37 percent increase to 97 aircraft wasn't nearly enough; this year, the company projects adding a net of 45 more.

"At a time when other charter companies have been laying off people and the business is slumping, we've been growing 15 to 18 percent a year," said Albert Pod, Executive Jet's president and chief executive since 2000.

All of this growth doesn't manifest itself at the company's 278-employee operation at Lunken. Executive Jet has 50 locations across the country, from Florida to New England to California and Alaska, and only seven of its jets are at Lunken. Its payroll is pushing 600 people, the most recent hires occurring in Teterboro, N.J., where the company opened a sales office last month to generate more business in the Northeast.

Wealthy people and business owners aren't going to let a little recession crimp their style. Hollywood celebrities, professional athletes and other jet-setters hire companies such as Executive Jet to transport them to the Academy Awards, sporting events, vacation spots and distant homes, Pod said. Some charter jets regularly, others just once or twice.

The pilots, engineers and mechanics work for Executive Jet, but the planes belong to other companies and are certified for charter duty in the Executive Jet fleet. "We manage aircraft for corporate America, mainly Fortune 500 companies," Pod said. "The Fortune 500 companies generally are not in the aviation business and realize that there is a company with aviation expertise that has the decision-making and buying power that they don't have."

Executive Jet flies Gulfstreams, Falcons, Citations and other makes all over the world. Last year, Professional Pilot magazine rated Executive Jet as the best charter jet company, according to a survey of its subscribers. It was the fifth year in a row that the company won the honor.

Corporations that operated private jets during the go-go years of the 1980s and 1990s often sacrifice the jets in downsizing programs or after CEO changes, such as at Ashland Inc. of Covington and Ryder System of Miami. Afterward, companies either charter jet service or buy fractional shares of jets, much like people own fractional shares of condominiums through time-sharing.

"The ownership of business jets, and the finances of that, is being examined in corporations more than it ever has before," Pod said.

The time-sharing of private jets is the niche of Executive Jet's sister companies. Together, they are owned by NetJets Inc. of Woodbridge, N.J. Under its previous owner, New York businessman Richard Santulli, NetJets executed the fractional ownership concept so well that legendary investor Warren Buffett bought the company for $725 million in 1998.

As a result, NetJets and its Executive Jet subsidiary are part of Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate in Omaha. Pod says the ownership gives Executive Jet an ample financial well to draw from. And Buffett, he said, doesn't make a habit of nosing around the operation in Cincinnati.

"He's been here, but he doesn't like to make a big deal of it," Pod said. "Generally, he speaks to private wealthy individuals."

E-mail jmcnair@enquirer.com.