The sky is the limit

Sheldon G. Adelson, President of Citadel Completions, and Citadel Completions’ Managing Director Joe Bonita, talk to Anthony Harrington about their aspirations for business aviation’s newest VVIP completions center

AH: Mr. Adelson, what was the inspiration for you deciding to invest in a new VVIP completions company?

SGA: Perhaps the first point to make is that I have considerable experience as a customer at a range of completions facilities around the world. We own a substantial fleet of private VVIP narrow and wide-body aircraft, as well as traditional business jets. Some of these are company aircraft and some of them are my family’s, and we have had many of them in the hands of various completions centers over the years. 

So, based on this experience of being a customer of these completions centers, my aviation team and I came to the conclusion that there was a clear opening in the market for a company that could do the job better, faster and to a higher standard. 

As an entrepreneur, that is the approach I take when I enter any business, which at this point in my career is more than 50 different businesses. The first thing I do is to look at what is being done and see if there is an opportunity to do things differently. I’ve found great success in my career by continually challenging and changing the status quo – regardless of the business or the industry. 

AH: Setting up a brand new completions house from scratch clearly required a very significant investment. The figure announced in your launch press release back in May this year was $17.6 million dollars. What were the clinching factors for you in deciding to press ahead?

SGA: First, my conviction as an entrepreneur is that this was the right opportunity and the right time. When we outfitted my A340, we didn’t want to deal with any of the cumbersome, bureaucracy-laden completions centers. We managed much of the process ourselves and finished the airplane in an exceptionally shorter period of time than we could have expected from any of them. So, once I made the determination to start this business, it came down to finding the right location and leadership team to execute my vision.

On the leadership front, quite fortuitously, we met Joe Bonita, who has over 24 years’ experience as a US Air Force aircraft maintenance officer and has spent 11 years since then as a senior leader in commercial air carrier and MRO operations. Joe also led the team who happened to be doing the MRO portion of the interior work on my A340 aircraft which had hit a few snags. He helped to deliver an outstanding result well within the project’s time frame. That was very impressive and we started talking to Joe about our plans to enter the completions market.

Along with my preliminary project team, Joe began the process of creating the business and identifying potential locations, finally opting for the facilities we now operate at Chennault International Airport in Lake Charles, Louisiana. We discussed and visited other locations, but we are very happy with our decision to put the business in Louisiana.

AH: Joe, what mattered most to you in the final decision to opt for Lake Charles, the incentive package they put up, or the location itself?

JB: Clearly, the scale of the business we proposed to set up was hugely attractive to a number of municipalities. We were committing to creating at least 250 new direct jobs, with an annual salary and benefits packages that would attract the best talent. Along with the corresponding inevitable creation of hundreds of new indirect jobs in the surrounding Southwest Louisiana region, that was a very promising proposition for the state and they came up with a very good incentive package for us.

State and local governments, the Lake Charles community, and Chennault International Airport leadership were very welcoming and easy to work with throughout the selection and implementation process. The State of Louisiana offered us an attractive performance-based incentive construct to defray the cost of facility modifications, and significant performance-based incentives for lease support.  

However, what was just as important for us was the fact that Chennault International Airport is a former US Air Force base and has a runway of over 10,000 feet, capable of accommodating the largest aircraft. There were also excellent hangars available, which can accommodate several narrow and wide-body completion projects simultaneously, giving us a great working environment. Our primary completions hangar has approximately 112,000 square feet of operating space, and our secondary facility has three operating bays totaling approximately 150,000 square feet of space. We also have a separate administration building, and a fully functional ground support equipment maintenance structure. The airport also has terrific expansion possibilities as we grow the business.

AH: Mr. Adelson has business interests around the world. What did you think of Louisiana purely in terms of location?

JB: What was key for us was that Louisiana is a very central location, readily accessible from either the East or West Coasts. Lake Charles is uniquely situated in close proximity to air, rail, land, and sea transportation modes, and is very close to both Houston and New Orleans metropolitan areas. Lake Charles itself is truly a hidden gem of America’s South. 

As Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards commented on our launch announcement, Louisiana is already home to a well-established advanced manufacturing industry, which provides great advantages to aviation and aerospace companies. Chennault is regarded as one of the state’s best aviation assets and they have broad plans for building on the existing aerospace complex in Louisiana. We are fortunate to have a resident aircraft painting company at Chennault supporting us, experienced in narrow- and wide-body VVIP aircraft painting. 

AH: What have your biggest challenges been as a start-up?

JB: The main challenges have been getting to grips with the scale of a large start up like this. I’ve been very fortunate to bring on an extremely capable senior leadership team and they have taken the lion’s share of the burden on each functional area of the business. They have built strength in all their areas, and I’m very confident we are in great shape. We’ve built each functional area from scratch, including a robust accounting system, processes to hire top-notch leadership, technicians, and support staffs, plus on-boarding of a comprehensive maintenance information system to handle task level workflow and project management, as well as purchasing and inventory controls required to successfully handle large completion and MRO projects. We’ve built a substantial sales and marketing team and are excited about doing this interview with you! 

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