Page 6 - January 2022

Launching in 2005, Advanced Air is now considered to be one of the fastest growing business aircraft operators in the country while operating among the largest managed aircraft fleets on the West Coast.
The company’s services have grown from aircraft management and charter to also include corporate travel, supplying flight crews, property management services and, since 2015, regional commercial service through the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Essential Air Service (EAS) program. EAS subsidizes a minimal level of scheduled air service in small communities that were served by certificated air carriers before airline deregulation.
While Stockton is no longer the chief pilot, he remains an active line pilot flying King Air 350 aircraft. He still considers the King Air to be the core of Advanced Air’s operations and representative of why the Los Angeles- based company’s business model works. Of Advanced Air’s roughly 10,000 hours flown in the past year, about 4,000 were flown in King Air aircraft, half scheduled service and half private charter. Having scheduled service in the mix, he said, allows the company to consistently fly a customer’s aircraft six hours a day versus six hours a week, if that’s their desire. That adaptability and scalability allows them to grow in different directions simultaneously or move in a new direction with an existing resource.
4 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
“The key to Advanced Air’s success has been taking the assets we have and finding opportunity with them,” Stockton said. “Our core has always been that we’re an aircraft management company that can offset owners’ costs with charter. Where historically charter has been hard to work around schedules, we now have the availability to take a King Air 350 and plug it into our scheduled service network, meet the owners’ budget and pull it back out and have it ready for them where they need it. This model allows us to increase utilization across the fleet in a very unique way.”
How it Started
Stockton knew from an early age that he wanted a career as a pilot. He grew up in Washington state with his mom and he and his sister often flew commercially to Alaska to visit their dad. As unaccompanied minors, they regularly were invited to visit the cockpit. His father purchased a Piper Pacer when Stockton was 12 years old, further fueling his interest in aviation.
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JANUARY 2022