Aviation enthusiast launches charter jet service in Santa Barbara

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - A Local aviation enthusiast is building an empire out of her passion for private travel in Santa Barbara.

Sarah Oberman just launched a private charter jet service called TruNorth in Camarillo.

Now it’s contributing to other businesses here in Santa Barbara.

Oberman was born into an aviation family.

"I grew up with my dad as a pilot and my mom an aircraft sales person," said Oberman.

She’s now the CEO and founder of TruNorth.

Oberman schedules charter flights regularly in Santa Barbara.

The clients either fly into Santa Barbara and help the tourism industry locally, or they fly out of Santa Barbara to destinations all over the world.

TruNorth is contributing to an array surrounding businesses in Santa Barbara.

"They’re increasing the passenger jets coming in and out of the airport, expand the terminals and the FBO’s are expanding as well, and there’s just a lot air traffic coming in and out of here," said director of maintenance Kim Hougland of Coastal Aircraft.

Oberman said she hopes these charter flights will continue to bring revenue into the community.  

"Yup. We get a lot of maintenance and sell a lot of fuel," said Hougland.

"We help the industry with hotels night, with restaurants and the airplanes that come in and out of Santa Barbara airport buy fuel here … so it’s a revenue generator for the city," said Oberman.

One of the main advantages of flying on a private jet is for its convenience.

"The travel time is significantly less but if you’re gonna go to that commercial airline terminal, you show up at the airport ... to see me here and we walked right up to the airplane ... they get on ... close the door and they’re off," said Oberman.

Oberman hopes her charter service will continue to "fly high" for the community.