Aerial Sightseeing Operators Find That Sky’s the Limit

People are taking to the sky and paying as much as $170 each for the privilege. Across San Diego County, people are paying high prices to take hot air balloons, helicopters and airplanes on short sightseeing tours.

Hot-air ballooning has been a rapidly growing recreational activity for five years. And what began for many companies as a hobby has become a money-making enterprise.

Balloon trip customers are those who “have always wanted to try it; they want to get away from everything and the balloons are quiet and peaceful,” according to Dawn Horst, co-owner of Rainbow Balloons, based in Temecula. The passengers, many of whom are retired people, typically have “the time and the money to do fun things such as this,” she said.

Four-year-old Rainbow Balloons, with its one balloon, charges $105 for a 45-minute to one-hour ride around area vineyards. The company takes 12 to 20 customers aloft per week, and expects to produce revenue of about $80,000 this year.

“We’re doing 25% better each year,” Horst said.

Pacific Horizons Balloon Tours Co., which claims to be the largest firm of its kind in San Diego County, has four balloons operating under three banners--Heaven on Earth, Wind Dimensions and Aerostatic Rainbow Wagons.

Its passengers fly from Del Mar across North County to Rancho Penasquitos. The $120 flight concludes with a champagne reception, although the company also offers a dinner flight that concludes with a meal at the Top O’ the Cove restaurant in La Jolla. That package costs $150 per person.

A Beautiful Morning, another balloon tour company that charges $120 per person and flies over the Black Mountain area, also offers a champagne reception upon landing.

Capital and operating costs keep balloon excursion fees high. A complete balloon costs as much as $23,000, the $12,000 balloon fabric lasts only 300 to 400 flight hours, and the $4,500 baskets should be replaced after 600 to 800 flight hours.

Tours in motorized aircraft are also popular in the county and are, in fact, often less expensive than excursions by balloon.

At Southern Wings, in business since July, company officials claim they are already making a profit with six different types of flights available and only one plane.

The company, owned by Arnold Hogarth and Becki Bond, offers not only a night flight around of San Diego, but also day trips to Santa Catalina Island; Long Beach; Havasu, Ariz.; Carmel and Monterey, and Las Vegas.

The “Moonlight Flights” last about 35 minutes and sell for $49 per couple. The Catalina and Long Beach flights cost $79.50 per person, and the Gambler’s Special flights to Las Vegas range from $149 to $172 per person.

Hogarth, who is also Southern Wings’ pilot, makes four to five flights a week. Although Southern Wings has had only about 300 passengers since it opened, Hogarth expects the company to generate annual revenue of $40,000 to $50,000.

National Air, which began in 1947 and was bought by its present owner 10 years later, offers 36-minute “Conquistador” helicopter tour flights for $69 per person.

The flight begins at Montgomery Field and continues over Balboa Park, downtown San Diego, Coronado, Point Loma and Torrey Pines. National Air also offers flight schools and air charters.

The tourist trips are “a very low percentage” of National Air’s business, according to spokeswoman Bell Madariaga.

Cookie Flights, which opened in August, will generate about $200,000 in revenue this year and expects to make a profit in its first quarter, according to Irene Cardwell, vice president of operations. She said that the helicopter tour company attracts about 150 customers weekly--most in the 20-to-45 age bracket--and is increasing its client count by about 6% per week.

“We’re the only ones in town that are (offering the kind of services we do). By the time someone else tries to (begin similar helicopter services), we’ll have captured the market,” she said.

The fledgling company, which operates out of Montgomery Field, exclusively operates tourist flights and plans to eventually include flights from Julian, Cardwell said.

Not all helicopter tour companies have been as successful as National Air and Cookie Flights. Bluebird Express, which flew fairly inexpensive tours over San Diego has, at least temporarily, gone out of business.

Both National Air and Cookie Flights expressed frustration over the City of San Diego’s policy of not allowing helicopters to depart from the bay and beach areas--potentially lucrative sites, company officials said.