Chris Townsley and his partners didn’t want to spend years wading through bureaucratic red tape to get their charter air company off the ground.
Townsley, along with Austin Albers and Brian Ahlert, had flown private aircraft for their owners for three years before they decided to go into business for themselves. They formed Buffalo River Aviation and went about getting certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.
That process can run from months to years. Townsley, Albers and Ahlert didn’t want to wait, so they reached out to see if any existing charter companies were willing to take them on as temporary partners.
Central Flying Service in Little Rock, the state’s oldest air charter company, turned out to be the perfect match for one of the state’s newest flight companies.
“The partnership works out really well with Central,” said Townsley, 42. “They provide us with the regulatory authorization to be able to provide retail aviation services. We bring some big assets to their offering portfolio that they didn’t have to go buy. Central found us to be the total package, as it were. It has been a really fulfilling relationship.”
Buffalo River Aviation currently has one airplane, a five-seat King Air twin turboprop that Albers and Townsley co-own. The company also has the use of two other privately owned planes and has seven pilots; Central Flying Service has approximately 100 employees and three planes.
The partnership with Central Flying allows Buffalo River to fly its clients or Central Flying’s clients. Buffalo River is based at Bentonville’s Thaden Field but can fly to and from just about any airport.
For CFS, the partnership gives it access to the prominent business community of northwest Arkansas. CFS, founded in 1939, was acquired by Tricoastal Ventures LLC and CEO Phil Jordan in 2022.
“We are always looking to expand our reach at Central Flying Service,” Jordan said. “We wanted to expand and Chris was wanting to expand opportunities for what they wanted to do. We had the 135 certificate; they had customers. It was a great way to partner.”
Hurry Up. Wait.
The FAA’s Part 135 regulation is for charter airlines that fly paying customers and has much stricter standards than the Part 91 certification that allowed the Buffalo River Aviation pilots to fly the previous three years.
Townsley said the group filed its paperwork with the FAA last year and then began the long wait for approval. Earlier this year, it seemed like the FAA was making progress with the application before things went quiet again.
“It’s like taking a slow walk and hoping somebody will open your email,” Ahlert said of the FAA process.
It was that uncertainty that made partnering with an existing company so attractive. And the pilots felt sure their endeavor was a winning one because of the need in northwest Arkansas for efficient business travel.
Townsley is a business owner, having run a health care technology consulting company for 19 years. He knows the value of being able to fly to a quick meeting and return in hours rather than spend an entire day traveling.
Albers, the owner of the Buffalo Outdoor Center in Ponca, flies to a rural airstrip every day he works in Ponca rather than spending hours on the road. Ahlert flew F-16s and A-10s for the U.S. Air Force for 19 years before flying 767s for United Airlines.
“We all have very different backgrounds and expertise,” said Ahlert, 50. “This is a journey we wanted to take.
“We are able to bring our diverse expertise to Central, and they are able to provide us with their wealth of history. It helps us get our feet wet in the charter world.”
Northwest Need
Townsley said the need for charter air service is there in northwest Arkansas, known for its thriving business economy and ever-growing population.
Albers said Buffalo River can fly into any town with a runway that can accommodate a King Air, so business travelers can pop in just about anywhere without the hassle of TSA security checks, flight delays and the like.
“We can get you into that small, uncontrolled airport out in the podunks,” Ahlert said. “We can save you a ton of time.”
For Jordan, the chance to gain entry into the northwest Arkansas market made the decision to partner easy. More importantly, though, was the business acumen of the Buffalo River owners.
“Even though Chris is a pilot, he is a businessman first,” Jordan said. “That is what lured me to them. Chris does both of them very well. He is very clear-headed. He is not wishy-washy. He knows what he wants, he knows what is best for them, and he knows what is best for us.
“Each agreement has to be good for both parties, or it’s not good for either of them.”
If and when the FAA certifies Buffalo River Aviation, the plan is for that company to become an individualized charter service separate from Central Flying. Townsley said even after that happens, the two companies will be strategic partners.
“Whether the FAA approves us this year or five years from now, we have no way of [knowing],” Townsley said. “There is no way of knowing how long we’ll be operating under Central’s certificate. It could be a year, could be six months, could be three years. None of those dates would surprise me.”
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