Roswell International Air Center

hypersonic planes, and Boeing has invested in a company,” he adds. “So, we see a lot of potential opportunity there with our relationship with White Sands.” Bleth is also reaching out to Denver International Airport, as well as the aeronautical businesses in that part of the country, to better establish the relationships between those entities and RIAC, as it works on setting up commercial air service to Colorado. “Denver has one of the largest aeronautical clusters in the country,” he notes, “and we are now sister airports with Denver International. We’re their only domestic sister airport, and one of four in the world. So, we’re building ties with Denver International to connect the two.” Kintigh believes that it’s that sort of relationship building that is key to obtaining future business at RIAC. “We’re leveraging the work that our partners like Avflight have done to solidify relationships with these manufacturers, like Boeing and Mitsubishi, to go deeper into their management structure to find more contacts and bring them here on a more permanent basis. With Mitsubishi, for example, we’ll have a conference call with one of their high-level managers regarding a wide- body hangar here or, perhaps, a future location of their processing center. Or when they fly a plane from Japan and they need to onboard it somewhere in the country, or whatever regulatory things they might need to address, as well as the sale of the airplane, we can do that in a tax-free environment in New Mexico.” “So, we’re continuing to try and expand opportunities, here,” Kintigh says in conclusion. “By that, I mean, we don’t want to be a one trick pony; we’re pushing in many directions. Not all of them will come to fruition – that’s just the nature of the beast. But, you keep trying to identify new opportunities. And you do it in collaboration with the solid partners we have down here, Avflight being the classic example. The takeaway is we’re constantly working on enhancing the options for aviation business here in Roswell.” ROSWELL INTERNAT IONAL A I R CENTER