‘Not Being Viewed as an Enemy’ Propels California Company’s Move to Texas, says CEO

Breitbart Texas

The top executive of a Southern California private charter airline says the Golden State’s hostile business environment propelled his company’s decision to relocate to Texas.

“ 'Not being viewed as an enemy, but being viewed as an asset is so refreshing,” said Alex Wilcox, Chief Executive Officer of JetSuite Inc., who, on Thursday, spoke to the Dallas Business Journal. He described the air carrier’s decision to move to North Texas this summer as a “welcome change.”

"He even shared a glaring example of one difference between California and business-friendly Texas. “I tried to start flying out of Santa Monica, California. And they sued me because I was trying to bring a service to the city,” said Wilcox. “When I got to Dallas, literally, people in City Hall were like, ‘How can we help you?’”

"The CEO said the company contemplated exiting California “for a couple of years.” JetSuite intends to make the Dallas-Fort Worth area its new home, although officials have not announced a location for their headquarters. Wilcox anticipates 60 employees will move with top brass to the Lone Star State and they will fill 180-200 jobs with Texans. The company’s chief executive said they will recruit qualified individuals for “behind-the-scenes” operational functions, dispatchers, maintenance controllers, “and the people who actually make airlines move.”

He quipped: “There are probably more people in aviation in Dallas than there are people in Newport Beach, in total.”
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"The airline’s move to Texas highlights the continued exodus of companies from the business-unfriendly California. From 2008 to 2015, an estimated 9,000 companies leftCalifornia, of which Texas was the top beneficiary of the relocations, During those seven years, California corporations accounted for 15 percent of companies that moved their headquarters or expanded operations into pro-business Texas. In many instances, the state incentivized out-of-state companies to expand into the state with the goal of creating more jobs and economic growth within Texas through the Texas Enterprise Fund." . . .