2017 Economic Impact Awards 6-15 Years in Operation Winner: Burgess Aircraft Management LLC

Pilot Mark Burgess has touched down in enough cities to know a solid local economy when he sees one. As the owner of Burgess Aircraft Management LLC, he says that’s one reason he chose to build a business in Springfield.

“Around here, we don’t seem to have those big economic swings, when the [national] economy takes big turns as it does from time to time,” says Burgess, who has more than 40 years of flying experience. “The East and West coasts, and those kinds of markets, seem to go into chaos, and Springfield has a nice steady flow.”

Burgess and his staff fly, manage, maintain and store 12 jet-powered airplanes, each with a capacity of six to nine passengers. The ownership of most of the planes lies with individual clients, who then lease the planes to Burgess for charter trips when not in use.

“We have [local] business owners that utilize the airplanes both for personal and corporate use,” he says. “And then we do a lot of work for outside companies.”

Trips are about evenly split between business and pleasure, he says, and at least half the flights originate out of Springfield, with the rest for subcontract clients in other cities.

The 10-year-old company leases land at the Springfield-Branson National Airport and paid $1.2 million for each of its two hangars. Through an agreement with the city, the airport will eventually take ownership of the buildings and lease them back to Burgess. He still plans to build another hangar and purchase two more $3.1 million airplanes this year to keep up with growth.

Burgess says he always borrows from local financial institutions, such as Springfield First Community Bank and OakStar Bank.

“We’re supporting local people, local economies and local owners,” he says.

Including Burgess, there are 13 pilots, plus three maintenance crew members, three office staff and one person who cleans the planes. Payroll reached $1 million last year.

Burgess helps busy business owners save time by avoiding larger, more congested airports, which typically are built on the outskirts of a city adding to travel time.

“There are tons of smaller airports that might be right next to where you’re going for your business or for your vacation,” he says.

But he says some of his clients may be shy about the fact they fly private aircraft.

“Airplanes are kind of a funny thing,” he says. “If you own one, it kind of puts that persona that you’ve got a lot of money or you’re wasting money – even though it’s not. It’s really a good tool to do what you need to do to make your business grow.”

Local charities – such as the Breast Cancer Foundation of the Ozarks – benefit from flights donated by Burgess as auction items. Last year, the company donated trips to Hot Springs, Arkansas, worth up to $10,000 each – including fuel, overnight crew expenses and airport fees. Other donated trips include flights to Montana worth upwards of $20,000 each.

“We feel like it’s something that we can provide,” he says. “And it provides a really big, high-dollar auction item they can sell at the auction and raise a lot of money for the charity. So we just basically eat that internally. We pay all the costs of the airplane and the crew.”