David Dempsey and his son, Nate, pose in one of the banner planes used by Dempsey's company, High Exposure Inc.
COURTESY DAVID DEMPSEY
John Wells of United Aerial Advertising prepares a banner for towing.
Photo COURTESY of UNITED AERIAL ADVERTISING
WALL — Kicking the banner airplane businesses out of Monmouth Executive Airport, as the new owners plan to do, would be a kick in the gut to the Jersey Shore, said one banner tower.
“Aerial advertising has been a staple of the Jersey Shore for more than 80 years,” said John Wells, co-owner of United Aerial Advertising. “This is huge. It would be as bad as closing down the Stone Pony.”
Wells said his company, and the other banner plane business at Monmouth, High Exposure Aerial Advertising, account for about 50 percent of the banner business at the Shore.
Another company operates out of Lakewood Airport, Aerial Sign North, and another in South Jersey, Paramount Air Service. Aside from one other national company, the rest of the banner business is taken up by solo pilots, Wells said.
Wells, a former Alaska bush pilot who now flies Boeing 767s internationally for American Airlines, has co-owned United Aerial for six years with another American Airlines pilot, Eric Kowalski.
Limited options
Wells says his options are limited. There isn’t enough space at Lakewood Airport for another operator, Wells and another company owner said.
Neither Wells nor David Dempsey, owner of High Exposure, have received formal notice evicting them, they said. A representative for the new owner said Thursday that negotiations to find another place to operate for both the banner plane companies and Skydive Jersey Shore will begin shortly.
Both men said a local farmer’s field might work for picking up and dropping off banners. The banners, about 150 feet long and 40 to 50 feet high, are picked up by a hook hanging from the plane’s tail as the plane flies 20 feet off the ground. Most of the planes used in the business are called tail draggers, Wells said.
The companies still might be able to fly in and out of the airport, using another field to pick up their banners, but even that is uncertain, Dempsey said.
High Exposure, in business for 18 years, runs 10 aircraft along the Jersey Shore and the beaches of New York. Dempsey’s company is based in Woodbine. It flies one to five airplanes out of Monmouth during the summer.
United, in business for 40 years, 20 out of Monmouth, flies five planes out of the airport. The company began operations in 1973 out of the now defunct Asbury Park airport, on Route 66 opposite the current Asbury Park Press building.
Beaches and football
Aside from the summer work, both companies fly banners for companies during Jets, Giants and Rutgers football games and personal ads for people at various times.
Both recently flew marriage proposals along beaches in Monmouth County.
“You never know how they turn out,” Dempsey said.
Wells performed a volunteer mission two Sundays ago when he flew a banner over New York with a tip line for information regarding a missing 14-year old autistic boy from Queens.
The evictions could drive United out of business, Wells said.
“It will be much more difficult to provide service to the Jersey Shore,” Wells said.
The ready access to Monmouth County keeps down the rates for those businesses.
If he finds another place to operate out of, it would still likely drive up costs for local businesses, he said.
For beach runs, High Exposure charges as low as $180 a flight or $2,600 a day, according to the company’s website.
Calls left at Skydive Jersey Shore were not returned.
Richard A. Asper, chairman of Aviation Professionals Group, based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., which led the negotiations for the airport’s sale, said the stock purchase agreement between Wall Aviation and Wall Herald Corporation, owned by the family of the late Ed Brown, took place several months ago. Details are still being worked out.
Asper said he could not disclose the price, citing confidentiality agreements that were part of the sale.
Story, Photos and Comments/Reaction: http://www.app.com
