AirSpace Auctions, a new business in Cisco, was “born out of a desire to simplify aircraft transactions,” according to owners Matt and Lisa Hutton of Eastland County.
They sell aircraft through auctions conducted online, at AirSpaceAuctions.com. Their auctions typically run for a week, and anyone can watch the bidding at any time.
Bidders cannot see who the high bid is from, but they can see what the current bid price is and can see what the next suggested bid is. “They can also put a number in here and enter in however much they want,” Lisa said.
“Often all the exciting stuff happens at the very end,” she said.
On the website, “We thoroughly document the aircraft itself, what it looks like, take hundreds of photos, scan logbooks, and film a start-up video,” Lisa said. “All of this is displayed on the website so bidders can fully vet the aircraft from anywhere.”
The website includes full logbooks of each airplane. “Anytime anything is done to the airplane, it’s logged in a book. And that book belongs to the airplane. And so all of the logbooks and all of that information, every time the oil’s been changed, every time a light bulb, a bolt, a cotter pin–everything is recorded,” Lisa said. “And so that gives the buyer a really strong sense of the maintenance history” of the aircraft.”
“What AirSpace does is bring data to the forefront so buyers can make an informed decision based on all of the data,” she said. “We provide a lot of data out there so the buyer can really understand the airplane.”
The Huttons live on their family ranch south of Cisco. Matt grew up in Eastland County and attended schools in Cisco and even attended Cisco College in 1995. His father, Noah Hutton, was in agricultural aviation, so Matt has been around airplanes all his life. Matt’s grandparents, Cowan and Laverne Hutton, were cattle ranchers on the same sprawling ranch where Matt and Lisa Hutton and a number of other family members now live. Grandmother Laverne’s parents owned the country store at Pioneer.
After his parents divorced, Matt spent half of his time with his mother in Savannah, Georgia. It was at the university in Savannah that Matt met Lisa, a Fine Arts major with a head for data management and marketing communications. She grew up in Connecticut.
Together they owned and operated a successful construction company in Savannah for two decades, but they sold out when the labor market started to change in 2019. They returned to the family ranch with the idea of taking a year or two off to think about what they wanted to do next.
“We swore we were not going to do anything that we are not really excited about,” Lisa said. “I’m excited about human behavior and data management. Matt’s excited about airplanes. We bring those two things together with a fair amount of experience buying and selling airplanes.”
They noticed the proliferation in premium automobile auctions. “The majority of high-end classic and exotic car sales were done in an auction format, and we took that auction model, and we moved it over to airplanes, another high-value asset,” Matt said. “We started the business on June 23, 2023, had our first auction on August 7, and I think we’ve already sold around 50 aircraft. Which is unheard of. So the system works.”
The company already has a global reach. “We have customers all over the world,” Matt said. “We sell repeated airplanes with a customer in Asia, we have a listing in Germany right now, we’ve exported airplanes to Brazil, and we’ve done it all out of Cisco, Texas.”
It was the Cisco Development Corporation, led by Executive Director Justin Jaworski, that helped the Huttons acquire their office building at the Cisco Municipal Airport. “Honestly, Justin and the CDC, they really saw and understood our vision. We came to them saying there’s potential here in this city,” Lisa said.
“Justin is the jewel of this town,” Matt said. “Seriously, Justin is an honest man. He’s always done exactly what he said he was going to do, and he delivers on it. He works really hard. And the CDC is one of the biggest values to this city; it increases your tax base, and they bring business to this small town, and business brings in affluent people that spend money, and you need people spending money to grow your municipality. That’s what Justin does. Thank you, Justin.”
Matt flies around the country to vet airplanes and list them on the website, while Lisa is the operational leader and marketing manager. Their goal is “5 and 5,” Lisa said. “We’re looking to take over 5 percent of the worldwide pre-owned aircraft transactions within 5 years of operation.”
The Huttons have two children, a 16-year-old son who is already a pilot, and an 11-year-old daughter who is currently taking flying lessons. Both attend Cisco schools. Lisa can also pilot a plane but she prefers to sit in “the right seat.” In their free time, Lisa enjoys yoga and Matt enjoys cycling.
“Municipal airports help generate a lot of revenue and economic activity for cities across the country,” CDC Executive Director Jaworski said. “The Development Corporate and the City have been working ‘hand-in-hand’ over the past few years to revitalize Cisco’s airport as a center for business activity. Matt and Lisa came at the right time to help us do just that and we’re grateful to have them here in Cisco.”
By Linda Spetter