Chad Verdaglio, owner and president of Sawyer Aviation Group, hopes to begin selling HALO technology to other aviation companies by the end of 2022. (Dennis Murphy/Contributor)
Heart of the Matter Sawyer Aviation makes that connection
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By Christina Fuoco-Karasinski awyer Aviation Group has won plenty of awards, but Chad Verdaglio is honored to transport donated organs. Nearly 40% of the Airpark company’s charter flights fly organs and medical transplant teams, the owner and president says. A pilot for a quarter century, the hands-on executive is improving the way it is done with
HALO, which allows for organ transplant coolers to be safely strapped into the bed of the aircraft to keep the container from moving around in flight. Sawyer Aviation is using HALO for its organ transport flights now and hopes to begin selling its patent-pending device to other aviation companies by late 2022. “We’re working on a second version of HALO to roll out before the end of the year,” Verdaglio says. “It calls for safe, legal and convenient transportation of all different types of transplant containers, which can be quite large and unyielding. In the cabin of a small- to mid-sized jet, it can be a problem
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to get in there.” The organ transportation is one of many ways in which Sawyer Aviation Group is contributing to the Valley and beyond. The company’s interests vary from flying guests to more than 5,000 airports to providing event space in its hangars.
Honored for work
Verdaglio will be honored on Friday, September 29, at Chateau Luxe as a 2022 Phoenix Titan 100, which recognizes the city’s top 100 CEOs and C-level executives. “The Titan 100 are shaping the future of the Phoenix business community by building a distinguished reputation that is unrivaled
