Foulkrod and Messina: off to a flying start with soaring jet charter business.

Foulkrod and Messina: Off to a flying start with soaring jet charter business The 1986 tax bill, which cuts deductions for large corporate investments, hasnot dampened the spirit of Marc Foulkrod, the youthful new president of Avjet Corp., an aircraft charter and sales company that commands a fleet approximately seven Learjets, Westwinds and Sabreliners.

Foulkrod, 32, who purchased Burbank-based Avjet last December with partner John Messina, 36, says he expects the company's sales to soar.

"Avjet's sales have been in the neighborhood of $3 million to $4 million," says Foulkrod. "I estimate within three years we will be doing an easy $12 million annually."

The optimism is warranted, he says, because the company is expanding at a rapid pace. Already, since Foulkrod and Messina took over, Avjet has opened new offices in Newport Beach and Connecticut.

Moreover, says Foulkrod, a plane is like a copier. "If they took away the tax benefits of owning a Xerox machine, would you still own one?" Foulkrod asks rhetorically. "You would if it makes money for you."

What could make Avjet, Foulkrod and Messina's first entrepreneurial venture, a success is their collective experience. The duo have been operating the company for several years, Foulkrod says, with Messina as the company's chief pilot and Foulkrod as the firm's marketing specialist.

"We were running the day-to-day business, but we were merely seeing the edges of the money," Foulkrod says. So the pair invested their savings and "borrowed alot" to buy the company from founder John Scantlin. Foulkrod will not say how much they paid for the privately held company.

Foulkrod, an engineer, has worked for Boeing and Douglas Aircraft, while Messina was a fighter pilot in Vietnam. But Avjet's growth is as much a product of being in the right place at the right time as it is of business acumen, Foulkrod admits.

To a great extent Avjet's growth will mirror Los Angeles' burgeoning importance as a financial center.

"L. A. is becoming the financial center of the universe," says Foulkrod. "That's great for us because movers and shakers are all congregating here and they need our services."

(Indeed, some of Foulkrod's more noteworthy clients have included President Reagan and Mayor Tom Bradley.)

Foulkrod predicts that Avjet's future will have more of an international flavor: "We're getting the Japanese, the Australians over here as clients," he says. "I think there's going to be a lot more of that as Los Angeles grows."

PHOTO : Foulkrod

PHOTO : Kathy M. Kristof Messina