Yingling Aviation has named long-time Cessna Aircraft Co. executive John Donatelli to the position of Regional Sales Manager at the Wichita Mid-Continent Airport-based firm.
With more than 30 years in aviation, including the last 28 with Cessna, Donatelli brings an extremely broad background in customer training, fleet contract management, customer relations, deliveries and sales to his new post, according to company officials. He will also assume day-to-day oversight of the flight training activities of Kansas Aviation, Inc.
A native of Arizona, Donatelli earned an Aviation Associate’s degree from Cochise College in Douglas, Arizona, with an emphasis in Professional Flight and Management prior to majoring in Industrial Technical Education with an emphasis in Aeronautical Technology and Aviation Management at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1978. He subsequently completed the Executive MBA program at Wichita State University.
Beginning his aviation career as a co-pilot and then pilot in a government-contracted fire-fighting operation in Whiteriver, Arizona, in 1972, he was hired by SportAir Aviation in Tucson in 1973. Over the next four years, he was promoted to the position of Chief Flight Instructor and then assisted in establishing the firm’s FAA Part 135 Charter and aircraft sales operation. He was eventually named General Manager.
Joining Cessna initially in January 1979, he developed marketing training programs and presented Cessna Pilot Center training seminars over the course of the next seven years before spending three years at the Boeing Military Airplane Company in Wichita as Manager and Facilitator of Total Quality Concepts. He returned to Cessna in August 1989 to manage Sales Scheduling and Customer Relations in Propjet Marketing before moving into Citation Special Mission and Fleet Sales in 1994. He was promoted to Manager of Customer Account Administration in the Citation Marketing Division in February of 1999 and then to Director of Contract Administration for the Caravan four years later. In that role he negotiated, administered and executed contracts and all associated issues from agreement development through customer presentation and financial closing, both domestic and international for fleet sales as well as individual transactions.
An experienced pilot, Donatelli holds commercial, instrument, single and multi-engine, glider, certified flight instructor, advanced ground instructor ratings and is type rated in the Citation CE-500. He has logged more than 4,200 hours.
Since 1999 when Yingling was acquired by its current Chief Executive Officer Lynn Nichols, it has worked closely with Cessna to create business opportunities such as the installation of Oasis interiors in Cessna Caravan turboprops, collaborated on the development of maintenance programs for piston and turboprop models, and become a supplier of Cessna parts in the world. In addition, the Wichita-based operation has expanded its facilities to accommodate assembly, flight testing and delivery of Cessna’s light sport aircraft, the Skycatcher, which is manufactured in Shenyang, China. The company also offers flight training through its Kansas Aviation Cessna Pilot Center and a selection of equipment, specialty items and gifts at its Aviator’s Attic store. Yingling employs more than 140 people at its sites in Wichita and Independence, Kansas.
For more information: 316-943-3246 or YinglingAviation.com
