Tourist package to include Calif. studio, LV, parks

Tuesday, Oct. 26, 1999 | 11:05 a.m.

Scenic Airlines, a North Las Vegas-based air tour operator, will begin shuttling passengers to and from Los Angeles next year under a new agreement with Universal Studios.

Beginning in April, Scenic will offer two flights a week on 44-passenger Fokker F-27 turboprop planes between Burbank, Calif., and McCarran International Airport.

Scenic, the world's largest air tour operator, signed a deal to package tours with the Universal Studios theme park near Hollywood. Under terms of the deal, visitors to Universal could arrange a side trip to Las Vegas or to fly a Scenic tour to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah or Monument Valley in Utah and Arizona.

Las Vegas visitors also could package a trip to Southern California to visit the theme park.

The package deal was announced as Scenic owner Gene Yamagata made a visit to the company's North Las Vegas facility, which is projecting a record month in October and its best year ever.

Yamagata, a billionaire businessman with investments in companies ranging from hotels to health care, cut a cake presented to Scenic employees for their record sales and told workers that they can expect bonuses for booking more than 32,000 passengers in October. The announcement drew cheers from employees who gathered in a company meeting room to see the man who bought Scenic from St. George, Utah-based SkyWest Airlines for $12.4 million earlier this year.

Yamagata earlier bought Henderson-based Lang Air and changed its name to Eagle Canyon Airlines. When Eagle Canyon, which had flown the F-27 planes on its own Grand Canyon tours, acquired Scenic, the company consolidated its operations at McCarran's Executive Terminal, which the company also owns.

Scenic's high-winged, big-window Twin Otter planes were used for most tours allowing other uses for the faster, higher-capacity F-27s.

By summer, the company decided to move to North Las Vegas and the result has been a doubling of capacity, which resulted in higher bookings.

Scenic is one of Yamagata's largest U.S. businesses since he sold Salt Lake City-based Morris Travel, which was a division of the group that owns Eagle Canyon.

Yamagata prefers a hands-off policy in the operation of Scenic. He allows President Norm Freeman and Chief Executive Officer David Young to make the day-to-day decisions, opting not to get involved with the political battles involving the Grand Canyon's air space and noise in the national park.

He refers questions about those issues to Young, who is an advocate for the industry's bid to continue flying tourists over the canyon.

Yamagata, who owns an 8,000-square-foot, $2.3 million home on a half acre in the Spanish Trails area near high-profile neighbors Andre Agassi and Randall Cunningham, is more directly involved in the business he founded in 1983 and is now half owner of, Forever Living Products Japan Inc.

He frequently travels to Japan to meet with distributors of the cosmetics and beauty and health products that are sold through a multilevel marketing network. The company has grown to more than $500 million a year in sales.

Born in Jerome, Idaho, Yamagata went to Tokyo in 1957 on a church mission and there learned to speak Japanese. When he returned, he received degrees in economics and computer management from Brigham Young University and the University of Southern California.

In his frequent visits to Japan, Yamagata has noticed a greater emphasis in the marketing of Las Vegas and his own observation of the Japanese economy points to increased visits to the city, especially with increases in direct air service between Tokyo and Las Vegas.

"The Japanese have an excellent relationship with the United States," Yamagata said.

He said many of the nation's affluent traveling public still have positive memories of America's post-World War II policies. That loyal friendship translates to a willingness to spend money on American soil, he said.

In addition to his ownership of Forever Living, Yamagata owns hotels in Phoenix, the Dallas-based Delta Group, an extended warranty company and three small Southern Nevada used-car dealerships under the name of Cleveland Motors.