A small airline with some intriguing services moves from Oakdale to Modesto Airport
Sierra West Airlines, based in Oakdale for about a quarter-century, has a new home at the Modesto Airport.
The business flies two Learjets with up to seven passengers each, plus cargo planes that deliver a variety of items. One specialty – animal rescue flights – recently drew media attention.
Clients can charter flights all over the Western Hemisphere, on short notice. Sierra West delivers parts to automobile manufacturers that use a “just in time” model for inventory control. Even more urgent are the donated organs bound for operating rooms. Hazardous materials are another niche.
“Our specialty is unique or challenging movement of goods, especially at the last minute,” President Kyra Busam said Thursday, June 11, at her new headquarters. Sierra West also works out of airports in Toledo, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.
Pandemic cuts into jobs
Before the coronavirus pandemic, about 100 people worked for Sierra West and its affiliated airline, Interjet West. The workforce dropped to about 60 before starting to perk up recently, Busam said.
InterJet was launched by her sister, Kendra Robinson. It is based in Ohio and specializes in travel to Mexico and several other countries.
Sierra West is hiring for pilot, mechanic and other jobs in anticipation of recovering from the pandemic and growing from there. And it is using sanitation and social distancing measures that could keep COVID-19 at bay.
From mother to daughters
Busam and Robinson are the daughters of Deborah Robinson, who founded Sierra West in 1992, and Ken Robinson, who was a UPS pilot and flight school owner. The parents still are consultants on the business.
Neither sister is a pilot, but they have been immersed in the business since the early 2000s.
The move from the Oakdale Municipal Airport provides a more central location and a longer runway for Sierra West. It started leasing hangar space from the Modesto Jet Center, formerly Sky Trek Aviation, on June 1.
The cargo plane now based there is a Metro 3 turbo-prop that can carry 4,500 pounds.
Hens fly free from Iowa farm
Sierra West has flown animals for various purposes, such as a dolphin to SeaWorld and numerous dogs of a certain breed for the filming of “Beverly Hills Chihuahua.”
It also partners with animal welfare groups to get creatures out of harm’s way, including dogs during Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. A nonprofit in Oklamoma called Fetch Fido a Flight sends shelter pets to new owners in other states.
In May, Sierra West was part of a hen rescue in Iowa that was reported in online stories in the New York Times, CNN and other media. The 1,000 birds were about to be put to death because a COVID-19 outbreak among employees at an egg farm. A donor got them on the flights to the Animal Place sanctuary in Grass Valley.
