Phillips 66 Featured FBO: Westjet Air Center
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This month, Phillips 66 highlights Westjet Air Center, a Phillips 66 branded FBO located in Rapid City, South Dakota:
Don and Linda Rydstrom, owners of the full-service FBO, located at Rapid City Regional Airport (KRAP), report much success over the past 18 months despite the pandemic. Linda credits that success to their close ties to their family and community.
Westjet Air Center has been a staple of the Rapid City aviation community for decades and has continued to grow since Don purchased the FBO in 1978, about 21 years after it originally opened in 1957 as a Phillips 66 branded FBO. Keeping Phillips 66 Aviation fuel was not a difficult decision and now Westjet is coming up on its 65th year as a Phillips 66 Aviation Fuel Partner.
Not too long ago, in 2015, Westjet celebrated the grand opening of a new $1 million FBO facility, which they built to cater to their aviation customers’ wants and needs, including a state-of-the-art flight-planning center, pilot’s lounge, private sleeping quarters, well-stocked vending area, and a children’s room built to cater to traveling families.
Westjet also features 75,000 feet of top-of-the-line hangar space, concierge assistance, 24-hour fueling, and extensive ground and maintenance services operated by fully trained and certified specialists—many of whom were trained in military service at nearby Ellsworth Air Force.
As a pilot herself, Linda believes you can’t successfully own and operate an FBO unless you’re a pilot, which is why Westjet provides new employees with their first three to five hours of flight training at no charge. This, Linda says, gives them an appreciation of what pilots need and want and an understanding of certain things that only make sense to pilots. Plus, Westjet offers a substantial discount to employees who want to enroll in flight school and continue their training.
The flight school is separate from Westjet and is owned and operated by Don and Linda’s daughter Miranda Rydstrom Maleki and her husband Bijan Maleki, both of whom are actively involved in the business and will take over the reins of the company in the future.
Though retirement is around the corner for Linda, Don has already stepped back to pursue other activities and interests, neither is eager to get out of the aviation business. Both are retired commercial pilots with more than 16,000 hours of flight time, so they’ve spent the better part of their lives in the skies, either pulling cargo, flying corporate or simply cruising for fun. In fact, prior to getting married, Linda was one of Don’s employees who often served in a variety of capacities, including hauling cargo, piloting corporate flights and anything else that needed to be done. Miranda and Bijan are doing the much of the day-to-day management, with Linda’s assistance and guidance.
As longtime members of the Rapid City community, Don and Linda have a soft spot in their hearts for the children living in and around the area. The two have shared what success they’ve had with various organizations that support children in need. In fact, Westjet is sponsoring a Christmas party for more than 400 Title I elementary students this month, a tradition of theirs for the past 15 years. This is just one example of the many outreach efforts that Don and Linda spearhead as a way of giving back to a community that has supported them through their own ups and downs.
Westjet Air Center is a member of the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) and National Business Aviation Association (NBAA).
To learn more about Westjet Air Center, please visit westjetair.com.
To learn more about Phillips 66 branded FBO programs, including Contract Fuel and WingPoints® Rewards, visit phillips66aviation.com.