Photo credit: Ultimate Jetcharters
April 29, 2020
Cincinnati, OH-based Ultimate Jetcharters recently announced that its more than 100 employees are safe from furlough, despite the COVID-19-induced downturn in flight activity nationwide and the economy as a whole.
“We’ve formed a partnership between our company and our employees to get through these unprecedented times,” said Rick Pawlak, senior vice president of Ultimate Jetcharters. “We had to think outside the box to stabilize the company and our employee base.”
Ultimate Jetcharters is made up of two divisions: on-demand charter service through Ultimate Jetcharters and scheduled shuttle service through Ultimate Air Shuttle. Pawlak credits three key aspects of their successful response to the pandemic.
First, at the beginning of the COVID crisis, the company immediately idled its scheduled shuttle service, and the company also applied for relief funds through the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program. The move to halt shuttle service saved resources and enabled the company to bridge the gap between the slowdown and receipt of relief funds. Finally, flexibility from its employees has been an essential piece of the organization’s plan.
Today, all 112 flight, maintenance, sales, account services and administrative team members remain employed. The Ultimate Jetcharters maintenance team is working diligently to keep the fleet fully operational, and other team members are enhancing inflight and ground procedures to adapt to the changing times.
“We have kept our highly skilled and experienced employees, and we will be ready for the business surge we think is coming,” said Pawlak. In fact, Pawlak reported an increase in charter requests over the past week.
“We made an investment to make sure we can serve our employees and our community during the upcoming recovery,” said Pawlak.
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.