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Gliko Air Charter Service Prepares to Take Flight

By KFBB News Team

Story Created: Aug 16, 2010 at 5:30 PM MDT

Story Updated: Aug 16, 2010 at 6:21 PM MDT

For over ten years, Great Falls has been without an air charter service. But if everything goes as planned, Gliko Air Charter will take off in the next couple of weeks.

"We sat down one day, and he was like, 'we should buy an airplane and start an air charter service,' and it was just as basic as that," said Pete Fontana, co-owner of Gliko Air Charter. "We just started putting the project together, went and bought an airplane, and here we are."

And once they receive the FAA approval, Gliko Air Charter will be ready to take to the skies. The charter began as an idea between veteran, local pilot Scott Gliko and Pete Fontana, after seeing a void of service in central Montana.

"It stared out like buying a car, and then after we started going through the FAA process, and air charter, and the air taxi service, it ended up being a lot of planning, especially for getting the certificate accomplished and then the marketing of this too," said Fontana.

The Cessna 414 holds six passengers, and will cost around $750 an hour, a price equal to $125 per person per hour.

Over the past few months, the service has already fielded calls from interested businesses and tourists, but Fontana and Gliko also received some calls they didn't expect.

"The most amazing thing is that we've been receiving phone calls from transplant patients that need to be taken to Seattle or Rochester, Minnesota," said Fontana. "So we're looking forward to that, because those folks would've had to move out there, and now they can take an aircraft, and we can have them there in a moments notice."

And as for what the future holds, Gliko Air Charter is looking into expanded service in the area, and a possible weekly flight to Billings.

"Our goal is to get this up and running and see the response here in Great Falls," said Fontana. "And then, we'll either move up to a larger aircraft or multiple aircraft. We're actually pretty excited about starting this here in Great Falls."

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