2022 Young Alumni Achievement Awards: Paul Sallach
2003 UND graduate has found success growing a full-service aviation company in Las Vegas.
In the short time since Paul, ’03, and Lindsay (Henke) Sallach, ’05, were featured in the spring 2021 issue of this magazine, their Las Vegas business, All In Aviation, has grown twofold.
“We are up something like 38 percent year over year,” says Paul. “It’s been absolutely gangbusters. Since we spoke last year, we’ve doubled the number of airplanes that we have and I have 25 people on the payroll right now.”
All In Aviation offers flight training, pilot certifications, aircraft rentals and sells airplanes. The company also was a partner in a 26-hangar development at the Henderson Executive Airport in Las Vegas. The development was a major undertaking that gave Paul and Lindsay some concerns when the project, started in 2018, was finished in the middle of the pandemic. In reality, the storage hangars turned out to be a hot commodity.
“I wish I would have built more hangars. We currently have a multi-year waitlist.”
Paul says while inflation and the cost of fuel is concerning, there is also a major worldwide pilot shortage, so even though it’s more expensive, there’s a ton of demand for learning how to fly.
“We’re in a good spot.”
All In Aviation caters to two main types of customers: career-oriented and recreational. Career-oriented customers want to learn to fly and eventually become commercial or corporate pilots. Recreational pilots are those who want to fly as a hobby. It was those recreational clients who came out of the woodwork during the pandemic because they suddenly had a lot of time on their hands to pursue their bucket lists. Sometimes, those hobby flyers get hooked and buy their own aircraft, which bolsters the sales side of the business.
While they initially used luxury Cirrus aircraft exclusively for their flight training, they purchased two Cessna 172s from UND in September 2020 to offer a lower cost alternative for wannabe pilots. Given their love for UND, they decided to leave the planes Kelly green in honor of the place where they learned to fly and first met. Since then, they’ve purchased another Cessna from their alma mater.
A 2021 article highlighted that Paul had recently been selected as the 2020 U.S. Small Business Administration Small Business Person of the Year for Nevada. He’d also been named to Vegas Inc’s 40 Under 40 list, an honor that goes to the Las Vegas region’s 40 most promising and prominent professionals under the age of 40. Now, his alma mater is honoring him with its Young Alumni Achievement Award.
It’s a big deal to me. I’m very proud to be from UND.
"It’s an honor to be recognized and I’m really excited [for Homecoming]. I think we have 40 to 50 people coming from all over the country to celebrate with us!”
Paul came to UND from Pennsylvania. He landed in Grand Forks after researching the best aviation schools with the most reasonable costs. He first met Lindsay when he was her flight instructor. The two started dating a year later. Both were working for Cirrus Aircraft (based in Duluth with a plant in Grand Forks) when they moved to Las Vegas in early 2009 to work in pre-owned aircraft sales. They began offering flight training as a way to bolster their sales and launched All In Aviation in 2016.
