Name: Dan Kahn

Title: Vice President of Charter Sales

Firm: ExcelAire

First Flight: “When I was 6, my father flew our family to Hershey Park”

Other Passion: Fast cars, “I raced cars with the Sports Car Club of America for 10 years and still enjoy going to the track”

If he could charter a flight anywhere, he would go to: “Disney World with my three daughters, just to see the look on their faces”

 

When he was growing up, Dan Kahn was a passenger on his father’s private planes countless times. Though Kahn never became a pilot himself, he figures he logged more hours in the second seat than many pilots.

 

“I love the feeling of adventure and freedom that comes with being up in the air,” he said.

 

Kahn went on to a career in finance and real estate, owning a mortgage company for 18 years. But when the housing crisis hit, he was looking to reinvent himself and turned to his lifelong passion.

 

In 2010, Kahn took a job as a sales consultant for a charter broker, and then served as director of sales for a private jet operator and, more recently, as president of Jet Charter Now, a jet charter brokerage firm.

 

The latest role for Kahn is vice president of charter sales for ExcelAire, a private jet charter and aircraft management company in Ronkonkoma. In his new position, Kahn is charged with growing the firm’s charter business.

 

“High-net-worth individuals and celebrities appreciate the privacy of flying charter; they can hold meetings in the aircraft and stay out of the public eye,” he said. “For business travelers, it’s about convenience and being home in time for dinner – that’s priceless. Leisure travelers like it because their vacation starts once they walk onto the plane.”

 

Kahn is available 24/7 in case a customer calls.

 

“I sleep next to my cell phone,” he said.

 

Of all the important clients Kahn has helped ferry across the globe, one stands out in his memory.

 

“We got a call from an aquarium in Atlanta, which needed to transport a sea otter from Monterey, Calif.,” he said. “I didn’t know much about sea otters, so I had to do a Google search. I thought the sea otter would need a tank, but it wound up traveling in a large dog cage.”

 

The plane had to fly at a certain altitude and the crew had to monitor the cabin pressure to prevent the otter’s internal organs from imploding.

 

“I’m happy to say the otter made it safely to Atlanta and is happy in its new aquarium,” Kahn said. “I feel like I did a good deed for an animal.”

 

 

Starzee, Bernadette. (2013, July 23) Dan Kahn named ExcelAire VP of charter sales. LIBN. Retrieved on July 24, 2013, from libn.com