Dugger Aviation has relocated its Greenville, South Carolina, to the Greenville Downtown Airport (GMU). Dugger Aviation provides private aviation services that include aircraft sales, management, charter, and cargo.
“We enjoyed having our office in Downtown Greenville but our clients expected us to be at the airport,” stated Dan Dugger, founder and president of Dugger Aviation. “When we looked at the overall cost savings and central location it added up to be a smart move.”
“I tell people that aren’t familiar with aviation to think of us as real estate agents with a property management division,” he continued. “We buy and sell houses, then we maintain the property for the owner and when they’re gone for the weekend we rent it out. That’s aircraft sales, management and charter.”
“Our motto is Life Changes Planes, because as retirement or grandchildren come along it will change the way people use aircraft,” he continued. “That’s why we are different than everyone else; we aren’t selling one type of solution, we use whatever makes the most sense for that person.”
Dugger Aviation might recommend selling a corporate aircraft that is being underutilized and possibly rolling into a fractional share, or simply chartering a few times each year. Alternatively, maybe the business is expanding and the current aircraft they own needs to hold more people or fly further with more luggage, he explained.
“We encourage people to look a couple years out, not 10 or 20 years, and decide if using an aircraft will be helpful because beyond that time frame nobody know what might change and our goal is to make it easy to adapt,” he said.
Dugger’s background includes 11 years as vice president with NetJets and Marquis Jet. He pioneered the sale of fractional shares in the secondary market by creating the first online trading marketplace, FracTrade. He holds a degree in both Business Administration and Commercial Aviation from Bob Jones University and is a commercially licensed private pilot.