Everts Air Cargo: Flying Alaska and beyond.

• Author: Anderson, Tasha
• Position: 2017 Top 49ers

In 1993, the owner of Tatonduk Outfitters Limited, Robert Everts, was at "The Hangar" (the term for his Dad's facility, formerly known as the Wien Air Alaska hanger at the Fairbanks International Airport). He and his father, Cliff Everts, were talking. Cliff mentioned a good friend who owned a small Part 135 aviation operation and was looking to sell his business. He suggested Everts purchase the business: "It was a well-run operation, it had two small aircraft, a couple employees, and it might be a good way to segue into [my] own air carrier operation. I took him up on that advice, and that was how I got started in the air carrier business. My success has been centered around listening to my father," Everts laughs.

Expanded Services and Markets

Years later, Everts remains the sole owner of Tatonduk Outfitters, which does business as Everts Air Cargo and Everts Air Alaska; Everts Air Cargo operates under a Part 121 certification, while Everts Air Alaska is a Part 135 operation. Everts explains that Part 121 is a classification for large aircraft operations with payloads greater than 7,500 pounds, including cargo and passengers, while Part 135 is less than 7,500 pounds.

Most of Everts' business is in cargo transportation; Everts estimates that 96 percent of the company's work is on the Part 121 side of the business, the large cargo operations. The Part 135 passenger service represents the other 4 percent, which also includes smaller loads of cargo and US mail. The company's initial areas of operation were Alaska and Canada. Today, its expanded operations to include the Lower 48, Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, and soon, Cuba. "Expansion and diversification [are] critical to continued growth and profitability. Aviation can be a tough industry to navigate if you have all of your eggs in one basket," Everts says.

An example of this diversification is Everts' operation of Zero Gravity flights. "It's an entertainment program where we take travelers up in a large aircraft and let them experience a weightlessness created by their parabolic flight," he explains. Everts has been offering the service for approximately two years. "I would say on average, we run about two flights a month down in the Lower 48 at primarily highly populated locations like Las Vegas, Long Beach, Houston, Orlando, [and] Fort Lauderdale." As of yet the service isn't offered in Alaska: "Really there isn't enough of a population density to warrant bringing a large...