Aviation View Magazine | Volume 1, Issue 4

94 AVIATION VIEW VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 al Airport ok at us now! P ennsylvania’s Brandywine Regional Airport had a unique ownership transition in 1997, when a group of 70 pilots formed a not- for-profit association to purchase their home airport. Since then, Brandywine has walked the line of being something between privately owned and public use – operating as a reliever airport for the Philadelphia International Airport, while at the same time being aviation home for the pilots-owners. The co-operative ownership model helps spread the financial burden and mitigate the risk of a single, private owner closing the airport due to financial hardship or for an economic windfall, something that has resulted in the closure of many active privately owned airports. “We are located in Chester County,” explains John Kassab, Airport Manager and one of the 70 members, “and this is a prosperous area. This is the “202 corridor” home to The Vanguard Group , a 401K company, Johnson & Johnson’s Synthes division, and QVC Television Network. We frequently have celebrities coming in to go to QVC studios – folks like Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank.” “There are a lot of entrepreneurs in business and industrial parks all around us,” adds Dimitri Vassilliou, President of Brandywine Aviation and Maintenance, “so those entrepreneurs obviously own higher-end planes for business travel. And AT A GLANCE BRANDYWINE REGIONAL AIRPORT WHAT: A popular general aviation airport WHERE: West Chester, Pennsylvania WEBSITE: www.brandywineairport.com