Commuter operations grounded

Phone wasn't ringing, entrepreneur says

Those plans "were canceled last October or November. There was not enough interest," Al Fattouch, owner of the AV Aviation company, said Tuesday. "There were not enough people to make it worthwhile."

In July 1998, AV Aviation's marketing director, Steve Abrams, said the company had begun looking into the possible costs and profits of offering commuter flights to Las Vegas, Los Angeles and other destinations from the Gen. William J. Fox Airfield in Lancaster.

At the time, Abrams told local officials the company could help as many as 1,500 people a day get to airports in and around Vegas, L.A. and Sacramento.

"We know the market is out there. We just need to get them here and get them out" to their destinations, Abrams said, encouraging the development of Fox Field instead of Palmdale Regional Airport, where United Express passenger service to LAX had been terminated in April.

To fill the void left by United Express, Abrams and AV Aviation owner Al Fattouch launched a new company, Cal West Airways, announcing they would restore those flights and add others to Las Vegas, Laughlin, Stateline and Sacramento, and possibly to Fresno, Bakersfield, Palm Springs and Phoenix by September 1998.

In August 1998, Abrams was touting plans by Air Vegas Airlines - based at Henderson Airport, south of Las Vegas - to begin passenger service to Palmdale Regional within the month.

By the end of November, all those plans had been canceled; Cal West had been closed and Abrams had moved on. AV Aviation relocated to the Rosamond Airpark, Fattouch said.

After retrenching, he continues to offer pilot training, aircraft-maintenance service, charter service and sightseeing tours, Fattouch said.

Charter flights are available to destinations within a 500-mile radius, which includes Las Vegas and Laughlin, he said. The flights are made in a Piper Arrow, a plane that can accommodate three passengers in addition to the pilot.

Closer to home, he provides aerial views of sights throughout the Antelope Valley, such as the wind farms near Tehachapi and the Devil's Punchbowl near Valyermo, Fattouch said.

He also ferries movie scouts aloft to view potential film locations, he said.

Running the once-planned larger operation "would have cost around $3 million to get things rolling," said Fattouch, who has kept AV Aviation in business since 1993.

When the cost of new planes and additional pilots was compared to the number of phone calls from potential clients, "it just kind of fell through," he said. "We didn't receive that many calls. It just didn't make sense.

"The cost vs. what we figured the income would be would not have been sufficient to keep the operation running," Fattouch said. "Now we're doing what we can do best."