Gigi Segura, General Manager of Freeman Jet Center-ARA, joined the Freeman Holdings team via the acquisition of Pelican Aviation Corporation at Acadiana Regional Airport in New Iberia, Louisiana. Pelican Aviation had been in operation since 1945. Acadiana Regional was originally operated by the US Navy from 1960-1965 as a Naval Auxiliary Air Station as an advanced flight training base. VT-27 was the training squadron.
Gigi is from New Iberia, Louisiana and received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She has over 22 years of FBO experience. Her many roles served were CSR, Office Manager, Vice President and General Manager. In her career at Pelican Aviation, she had a lot of mentors to help her learn the FBO business. She assisted with the negotiations and requirements needed for the Solicitation of the DLA Energy contracts and was proud to see all branches of the military fly-in.
Also, during those Pelican years while selling approximately sixteen million gallons of Avgas and Jet fuel, there were no misfuelling, accidents or aircraft damaged.
She was fortunate over the years to have met people from all over the world who flew into the FBO. She always tried to make connections with all of the pilots, especially the military and NASA pilots, so that she could see them return in the future. Gigi is looking forward to the opportunity to have major renovations at the current facility which will accommodate a Café. She’s excited to be able to offer this to both pilots who fly in and aviation enthusiast to come and watch the flight line.
Gigi prides herself with having a good working relationship with the local Airport Authority, Air Traffic Controllers and Aviation Exteriors of Louisiana, Inc., whom they defuel/refuel customer’s aircraft painted at their facility.
All of this hands-on experience has been helpful with the challenges of transitioning to the new business model of FJC and she’s looking forward to increasing the traffic count at ARA with the support of the Freeman Holdings Group team.
Over the years, Gigi has been active in her community volunteering. She enjoyed helping raise funds for the local school system to send students on various educational trips.