Tiny InterJet West Airlines flies under the radar at Toledo Express

Jun. 14—When entrepreneurs talk about starting a business, they usually opt for healthcare services, a fast-food franchise, perhaps a photography studio.

Kendra Robinson, however, decided to aim higher — about 39,000 feet higher.

Ms. Robinson, a northern California native, moved to the Toledo area seven years ago to pursue her dream of owning her own airline.

Since 2014, her InterJet West Airlines has been flying regularly in and out of Eugene F. Kranz Toledo Express Airport moving auto parts, heavy equipment, and other cargo across the United States and elsewhere as a business-to-business air carrier that helps manufacturers caught in an inventory bind.

"We like to say we can be wheels up in two hours," Ms. Robinson said. "Basically, we help manufacturers eliminate their inventory fires."

Though it is a much-valued "flying Uber" for Michigan's auto industry and Ohio's manufacturers, do not be alarmed if you've never heard of InterJet West.

The airline, whose 30 employees include six three-person flight crews, is a Federal Aviation Administration Part 125 licensee. That designation, unlike a Part 121 that regular airlines use, lets InterJet reduce overhead costs significantly.

However, Part 125 comes with restrictions that make Interjet West nearly invisible.

It can't advertise or have a website. It can't put logos on its Boeing 727-200 and Boeing 737 jets — both are painted generic white with just their call signs painted on their tails.

InterJet also can't deliver products to end-user customers. "We can't deliver anything that goes direct to the public," Ms. Robinson said.

But flying items on behalf of companies needing to move things quickly keeps the airline plenty busy.

Just last week a new customer, Whirlpool Corp., needed parts immediately at its dishwasher plant in Findlay. InterJet West picked them up and flew them here.

"About 95 percent of our business is automotive," Ms. Robinson said. The jets "have floors especially engineered for automotive and heavy cargo, and that also works with manufacturing. We can move stamping equipment for them ... materials like metals, aluminum — really, anything they need — engines, leather, stereo equipment."

While InterJet doesn't fly to many glamorous destinations — "I've hung out in some of the armpits of the world," Ms. Robinson said — it does fly anywhere in the United States, including Alaska. Its jets also go to Mexico, southern Central America, and the Caribbean. It doesn't fly to Canada just yet, but it is seeking approval.

In fact, InterJet West has been so successful at what it does that it is expanding and hiring.

Currently, it uses two hangars at Toledo Express and is leasing a third, with 17,000 square feet where it will provide maintenance services to heavy jets.

"We were already doing it for our own jets and we have the equipment, so it made sense," Mr. Robinson said.

At Toledo Express, InterJet shares a hangar and offices with its affiliate, Sierra West Airlines, which was founded in Oakdale, Calif., in 1992 by Ms. Robinson's now-retired mother, Deborah.

Sierra West, now headquartered in Modesto in northern California but not far from Oakdale where the family grew up, is run by Ms. Robinson's sister, Kyra Busam. The airline flies passengers, cargo, and donor organs, but mainly uses smaller aircraft.

Neither sister is a pilot, but flying is in their blood.

Their mother was a private pilot and their father, Ken, flew for United Parcel Service. The couple also owned a flight school that they sold in 2008.

"I learned how to scrub the bellies of aircraft when I was 5, and I spent all my time at the airport because we were just a mom-and-pop business and everybody that worked for us is family, aunts and uncles," Ms. Robinson said.

"My father always told me, 'If you want to be in aviation, be on the business side,'" she said.

"So I worked on the Sierra West side for about 10 years and constantly kept seeing how much we came through Toledo. Toledo and Willow Run [Michigan] figured a lot in the automotive industry, so we were missing a little part of the market that uses the large aircraft," Ms. Robinson said.

"I knew I had to break away from the company. It was kind of a big leap for me to move here and try to start a new business. My sister took over Sierra West and my mom retired," she said.

Ms. Robinson, who lives in Maumee, said she was interested in Willow Run at first, but then Matt Sapara, the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority's chief operating officer at the time, showed her Toledo Express and won her over.

"He was the first person I met. They showed me around the airport. They were so business-friendly, they were very welcoming," Ms. Robinson said, adding that it reminded her of Texas, which also is very business-friendly.

"Coming here just made sense. What I don't understand is why more people aren't in Toledo, based on where the freeways run, and how the traffic is. It just seems like a little diamond in the rough," she said.

First Published June 14, 2021, 9:00am