Greg Stallkamp, CEO of Lakeshore Express Aviation, which is moving its home base to Oakland County International Airport. / Ron WuLocation and timing are everything as entrepreneur Greg Stallkamp explains why he is moving his two-year-old air carrier -- Lakeshore Express Aviation -- from Chicago's Midway to Oakland County International Airport as its home base.
It will save the company money as the costs of operating from Oakland will be markedly less.
And it will allow Lakeshore Express, a charter service that sells tickets individually, to tap into an even bigger potential market of underserved travelers between metro Detroit and Chicago.
Starting June 7, Lakeshore Express will begin regular flights from Oakland to Midway. Tickets will be priced $109 each way (it will offer a $99 starting price the first month of service).
For that, passengers get free drinks and no baggage fees.
And what's important in Stallkamp's playbook for success -- convenience. "It's all about location," he said.
Offering a flight from a smaller terminal where you park for free and have a short walk to the terminal will be popular, Stallkamp said.
Lakeshore has 20 employees with a team of four setting up the new operation at the Oakland airport. He expects that number of employees to grow to 10 by June.
Stallkamp grew up in Michigan (his father is former Chrysler executive Tom Stallkamp).
After moving to Chicago a few years ago, Greg Stallkamp saw how many people from Michigan living in Chicago continued to travel to northern Michigan. He thought a service from Midway to northern Michigan -- specifically Pellston Regional Airport -- would do well. It provides a central point whether going to Mackinac Island, Traverse City or other northern Michigan destinations.
He did market research and found an eager market waiting to be tapped.
They also met with executives of Pentastar Aviation, which is based at Oakland airport.
Tom Stallkamp knew Edsel Ford, who owns Pentastar Aviation, and asked whether the Pentastar team might talk to his son and the others about the industry.
"We all thought his idea was a good one," Edsel Ford told me when asked about Greg Stallkamp's plan to tap into underserved markets like Midway to Pellston.
Despite the prickly economy, the airline, which began service in June 2011, has succeeded. Their annual sales topped "a few million," said Stallkamp of the privately held firm.
Stallkamp began seeing the costs associated with being housed at Midway. He also began surveying the local marketplace and saw that a lot of people in southeast Michigan were interested in flying to Chicago.
Conversations with the Pentastar team led to a partnership that will bear fruit with new flights departing from Oakland County.
Pentastar Aviation Charter, the direct air carrier, will handle all flight operations, crews, maintenance and other aspects of Lakeshore's Saab 340B twin-engine turboprop, which seats 30.
Flights will take off from Pentastar's Stargate Terminal at Oakland.
Lakeshore Express will also continue to offer flights from Midway to Pellston.
"It's a really good venture and we hope to help him expand," Ford said.
Initially, there will be four roundtrips per week from the Oakland airport.
"We want to eventually offer regularly scheduled flights every day of the week," Stallkamp said.
Stallkamp's team did some research into the impact of the service from Midway on Michigan and found it "caused people to travel to Michigan two times more often than they did before our service existed," he said.
"And since they are saving five hours on their trip -- each way (instead of driving) -- they are spending an extra $141 in the community," he added.
Stallkamp has similar hopes for the new Oakland service.
For more information: www.lakeshoreexpress.com
Headquarters: Waterford
Background: Charter air carrier service launched two years ago.
Executives: Greg Stallkamp, CEO; Rus Behnam, general counsel; Jason Ribits, director of sales and marketing.
Route: Service between Chicago Midway and Pellston Regional Airport. Starting June 7 will begin adding service from Oakland County International Airport to Midway.
Stallkamp’s advice on starting a business: “The most important attribute when starting a business is persistence and determination.”
Story and Photo: http://www.freep.com
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