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Interview with OceanDrive Magazine ( BEACH PATROL ) October, 2003

FREDDY GARCIA-LUJAN Blade Runner

JUST THE FACTS

Favorite aircraft: "A hughes 500D and a Learjet 35." He is pictured here in front of his Sikorsky S-76 helicopter.

Farthest trip you've ever taken: "From Torrance, California, to Miami-21 hours of flying over three days in a Robinson R44 Astro helicopter."

Three words that describes you: "Hyperhactive, Original and Honest."

Freddy Garcia-Lujan is a logistical magician: As founder and vice president of the Fisher Island-based Global Aviation Solutions, the 34-year-old Caracas-born entreprenuer can help you buy, rent, maintain or manouver an aircraft-including his own Hawker 400-731 jet or R44 helicopter, his company's Lear 60 and Lear 31 jets and the more than 2,000 different aircraft he regulary brokers and taxis around the world. After moving to Miami in 1988, Garcia-Lujan attended Daytona Beach's world-famous Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and the FlightSafety Intrnational Academy in Vero Beach. He is a lincensed helicopter flight instructor and a jet pilot, and manages a fleet of 16 pilots who together fly nearly 700 hours a year. "We are the brains that saves you money and ensures you're riding in a safe aircraft with VIP service.

A pilot's personality comes out as he flies. It has a lot to do with the touch: The skids are his legs, the blades are his arms, and he becomes one with the machine, "explains Garcia-Lujan, who ones dreamed of becoming an astronaut and used to "fly hamsters around golf courses in little remote-control helicopters" as a kid. "Seeing the world from above gives you a different perspective: When you 're flying, you can experience an entirely new dimension of life."

170 OceanDrive                                                                                                      --Suzy Buckley

                                                                                                                    Photos by: Gio Alma

                                                                                                                              October 2003

Interview with Fisher Island Magazine Spring, 2003

Flyin' High Fisher Island resident Shares His Passion for Aviation

His enthusiasm is inmense, his attitude is genuine, and when most people are battleling rush hour on I-95, resident and member Luis Garcia Lujan is coasting into work on his R44 helicopter. "I spend more time in a helicopter than in a car," says Lujan, vice president of Helicopter Show Sales, Inc., a local company that charters private planes, helicopters, and yatchs for necessary business or pleasure.

From airport conections to helicopter tours to a romantic evening away. Helicopter Show Sales offers services in air travel that many people can't even emagine. And Lujan loves every minute of it.

Born in Caracas, Venezuela. Lujan was educated in the United States. He attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for aviation business administration and is currently finishing his minor in professional aeronautics. With a long list of ratings, credentials, and experiences, Lujan can fly anything from a helicopter to a big corporate jet and has been in the business since 1989.

Although Lujan says that flying a helicopter is very challenging and requires a great deal of coordination, the adventure side of him compares it to being on a rollercoaster. "The thing with a helicopter is that it has a lot of personality." he says. "I love airplanes the same as helicopters, but with helicopters, people get more amused. "He often uses them for sightseeing, and can see Miami, the houses of the rich and famous, the sharks in the middle of the sea, or the everglades from the air. "It is the closest thing to adream," he adds.

Lujan has a long list of clients. "I fly singers from Puerto Rico, owners of banks from South America, millioners from Washington, " He says." And I treat everyone the same. I don't make that distinction. I try to be very professional with everyone."

 The advantages of private charters are obvious to Lujan, who says that traveling via commercial planes wastes time, from going to the airport, security delays, and succumbing to airlines' shedules. "On a private jet, your plane is waiting for you all the time," he says. "Like a taxi in the sky."

     Besides the time issue, Lujan notes that traveling on a private plane is a controlled enviroment. "If you want to do business business in the aircraft, it's your own flying office," he says. If you want to close a deal in New York, and then go to Atlanta, and then to Boston, you can doit in one day, he says.

And forget the peanuts. Lujan uses restaurants such as Joe's Stone Crab and the Islan's own Cafe Porto Cervo to cater meals aboard his aircraft. "I try to maintain the same level that the island has, which is world-class." Lujan says he incorporates the upscale catering and service of Europe into his own company.

Lujan is not only a pilot; he is a loaner and a broker as well. If either he or his aircraft are unavailable, he can find an alternate aircraft since he knows many of the other operators in the area. He can recommend an airplane with a good safety record and a good pilot to a client, and says he can tell who is good and who is bad because as a client himself, he's been flying on private jets since he was a kid in Europe, South America, and the United States. In the future, Lujan sees himself with a big fleet of airplanes, controlling all the executive aviation in Miami.

Lujan has been in the United States for 12 years, of which 10 have been on Fisher Island. "I love it here," he says. "There is no other place like Fisher Island. There's no other place in the world like this." In fact, Lujan refers to Fisher Island as his family's "home base." His parents are in Spain, one brother and his wife are in Japan visiting, and his other brother is in Venezuela, although they all have homes on the island as well. "this is where we all meet. This is the base."

Talking to Lujan, it's hard to tell where the line between family and clients begins and ends. "I treat each customer like he is my family," he says, "with the respect of a professional, but with the care of a family."

Interview with Tiempos del Mundo Cronicas Urbanas June 27, 2002 Newspaper Miami, Fl

Miami Dade se abre a nuevos mercados

Aviacion privada alza vuelo

Sacando probecho de las implicaciones que hoy tiene volar en un avion comercial dentro de los Estados Unidos, las companias privadas hacen su agosto. Helicopteros y aviones pequenos se convierten en la alternativa, especialmente para el transporte de ejecutivos. Pero las posibilidades son infinitas. Este semanario conocio a Miami desde el aire.

Despues de los ataques terroristas del 11 de septiembre, la aviacion privada tomo mas vuelo que nunca. Tanto, que en la actualidad los viajes ejecutivos en helicopteros representan la nada despreciable suma de dosmil millones de dollares.

 "Creemos que los proximos cinco anos esta industria llegara a crecer en 17 mil millones de dollares," asevera Luis Alfredo 'Freddy' Garcia, propietario de Helicopter Show Sales Inc., una nueva empresa estrategicamente ubicada en la exclusiva Fisher Island.

 La mencionada compania se dedica a satisfacer las necesidades de transporte de clientes ejecutivos o turistas. "Nosotros operamos con aviaones pequenos, medianos y grandes con todos los estandares de seguridad garantizados," expresa Garcia.

La empresa es una de las pocas en su tipo, pues ofrece todas las soluciones de aviacion, pues es un 'broker,' administra aviones, entrena pilotos, transporta y conecta a los pasajeros con cualquier tipo de aparato de acuerdo a las necesidades especificas. La flota de Freddy esta compuesta no solo helicopteros sino tambien un yate.

En la vision de Garcia, la aviacion privada es cada vez una opcion mas segura y barata. "Antes un helicoptero de piston nuevo costaba mas de $300.000 mil dollares y ahora cuesta menos operarlo," dice.

Sus clientes van desde ejecutivos, que tienen la agenda muy ocupada, hasta artistas, pasando por millonarios y turistas. Chayanne, por ejemplo, esta tomando clases para pilotear helicoptero con el.

Pero cuales son los propositos reales de la aviacion privada? En el caso de los helicopteros pueden ser, como dice un grupo de comediantes argentinos, desde lo mas sublime, a lo mas perverso. garcia se dedica a satisfacer cualquier deseo incluso excentrico si esta dentro de los parametros de seguridad.

Un dia en los callos

Ajustese los cinturones, agarrese y a volar...Elevarse a mil pies de altura es tan facil en un helicoptero como tener alas propias. Tambien es excitante y rapido. Quieres almorzar en los cayos, o tal vez en Naples?, quisiera ver cocodrilos en los Everglades, viajar urgentemente a algun punto del condado a la hora de mayor congestion en el transito o tal vez escaparse con su pareja a una playa solitaria para ver el atardecer?...Todo es posible en el mundo de la aviacion privada.

Una pareja fue donde Freddy Garcia con el pedido de llevarlos a almorzar en los Cayos pues era su aniversario de boda. Otro individuo, un poco mas loco, quiso que el helicoptero bajara en el patio de la casa de su novia para tirar un cartel con una propuesta de matrimonio en medio de un asado."Romantico pero peligroso," le dijo el piloto negandose. Como estas, hay muchas solicitudes, unas mas y otras menos excentricas. Pero en la aviacion ejecutiva se ahorra tiempo y dinero. Ahora existen otras formas de acceder a la aviacion privada, como el 'time sharing' donde varias personas se reunen y compran aviones pequenos y companias como las de Garcia los administran. Esta modalidad es mas barata que adquirir un aparato y mantenerlo, lo cual es costosisimo. "La aviacion privada esta experimentando un crecimiento fenomenal," asevera Rod Allen, piloto de un Cessna Citation 5 de una empresa que transporta ejecutivos.

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