August 19
August 19, 2008
Edna Breaux Uzee
August 21, 2008
Charlie Hammonds, president of Hammonds Air Service at the Houma-Terrebonne Airport, wants everyone to know that the company is still flourishing, even though he is eliminating most of the business’s oilfield-related work.
Hammonds will concentrate on its air tour and pilot training operations.
Selling fuel and maintaining and storing aircraft had made up a large part of the air service’s business, but Hammonds decided to sell his airport operations and two hangars on the east side of the airport to Lafayette-based Petroleum Helicopters Incorporated in December.
“Everything we do is oilfield-related,” he said. “It goes up and down and you have to adjust. The oilfield industry has been good to us. I have nothing bad to say.”
To store his three planes, Hammonds is building a new 6,400-square-foot, $480,000 hangar on four acres in the northwest part of the airport.
The company leases the land.
“Land can’t be bought at the airport,” he said. “But if you build your own building, they give you a lease. We’re well treated by the airport.”
All three of his planes, which includes a seaplane, are being kept temporarily at Butler Aviation until the new hangar is built.
Hammonds’ seaplane operation was extensive. The plane had been stored on Dunn Street in Houma, but that property was sold to 1921 Seafood and a Baton Rouge diving business.
Hammonds, founded by Charlie Hammonds in 1960, will continue to check for leaking pipelines for oil companies as part of the business, but the company is definitely downsizing.
“We had a good run at it,” he said. “We enjoy aviation. That’s what we do.”
Charlie Hammonds, president of Hammonds Air Service at the Houma-Terrebonne Airport, poses on his seaplane, one of three planes he uses for air tours and pilot training operations. * Photo by KYLE CARRIER
