Porsche owners invited to travel a little higher
AIRPORT EVENT SHOWCASES CARS AND AIRCRAFT
By Lisa Eckelbecker TELEGRAM
& GAZETTE STAFF
Juliette Krovi and her sons, Nirvan Krovi, 8, and Arya Krovi, 4, of Shrewsbury,
examine the Porsche RS Spyder Evo race car on display at the
Porsche Business Aircraft & Jet Preview at Worcester Regional Airport.
Behind them is one of the aircraft on display. (T&G Staff/DAN GOULD)
WORCESTER- Hey buddy, wanna buy a plane?
That was the message yesterday as owners of Porsche vehicles converged on Worcester Regional Airport for a business airplane show sponsored by Porsche and organized by Airport Journals of Centennial, Colo., publisher of 11 newspapers focused on airports.
Nearly 600 people attended the event, many of them Porsche owners from New England who were invited by dealers to browse the 14 airplanes and one helicopter parked outside the terminal or take a spin down a runway with professional instructors from the Porsche Sport Driving School in Birmingham, Ala.
Why Porsche drivers and airplanes? The thinking goes that people who can ante up $50,000 to $100,000 or more for a fast car might be good candidates to buy a $2 million plane, a share of a plane or even a chartered flight, organizers said.
"They're both a performance-driven crowd," said Justin Lips, Airport Journals president of sales and marketing. "They both have money. They both appreciate the finer things in life."
Eric N. Waldron, director of Worcester Regional Airport, said the event also gave the airport a chance to show current and potential plane owners or users the general aviation resources in Worcester.
"Marketing to aviation is a long-term thing," Mr. Waldron said. "It's relationship building. It's making people aware."
This marked the first year that Airport Journals has brought the "business aircraft and jet preview" to Worcester. Last year, the New England event was held at Oxford, Conn. Airport Journals is sponsoring 11 shows around the country this year, with the biggest audiences expected at airports in Scottsdale, Ariz., and Van Nuys, Calif.
Representatives from airplane and air service companies said they were pleased with the steady flow of people through the event and the chance to meet prospective customers.
"Worcester's got a lot of passengers waiting to be flown," said Kenneth M. Brown, flight manager and pilot with Skyline Flight of Spencer, which offers charter flights on five planes, including a Cirrus SR-22 that was on display at the airport.
PlaneSense of Portsmouth, N.H., parked a turboprop Pilatus PC-12 on display to market its fractional ownership business. Customers buy a share of a plane, such as a stake that allows them as little as 90 hours of flight time, and share the aircraft with other owners.
The Pilatus PC-12, valued at about $4.3 million and seating up to 11, might not be right for everyone. PlaneSense Sales Specialist Chip Jarry said business owners, manufacturers, corporations and investment bankers make up about two-thirds of the business's customers.
"Rather than buy the full airplane, they buy the fraction," Mr. Jarry said.
Linnear Air of Concord, which flies an air taxi service out of Hanscom Field in Bedford, brought a new Eclipse 500 to the event, showing off the first airplane in the industry's new "very light jet" category. With twin engines and seating for three passengers, the jet retails for about $2.2 million.
"It's made jet travel available for very small airplanes, and it's very fuel-efficient," said Joanna Love, a Linnear Air pilot.
As vendors ushered guests through their planes, others put four Porsche vehicles through a twisting autocross course marked on a runway with fluorescent orange cones.
"The idea is to feel the cars out, not go totally nuts," Cass Whitehead, a Porsche driving instructor, told a crowd of mostly men gathered under a tent.
The reflection of other planes is visible in the nose of a plane on display
at the airport.
(T&G Staff/DAN GOULD)
For the most part, they didn't. But things changed when, after one loop through the course, the ordinary drivers climbed out of the vehicles and jumped into the passenger seats while the professional drivers accelerated, weaved and skidded through the course.
"It was amazing to see," said Ron Faccenda of Southboro, after climbing out of a Cayman S. "I got an idea what a race car does."
Bob Kirchman of Stow, a member of the Vintage Sports Car Club of America and owner of three vintage Porsches, climbed into a 911 Carrera for a drive through the course.
"If you take one out for a test drive at the dealer, you can't drive it like this," he said.