Business View Magazine | April 2019

73 general, should run, this year, anywhere from 24,000 to 25,000.” Some of those aircraft operations are general aviation traffic; the Airport is home to 42 GA aircraft, a number that Roof says has been static for several years, although with a notice- able shift from private to corporate ownership. He notes “You don’t see the numbers of single- engine aircraft and light twins that we used to have, but the number of corporate turbine operations is up substantially.” Roof reports that the Airport’s FBO, Midwest Aviation Services, as well as the Barkley Re- gional Airport Authority, which assumed own- ership from the city and county in 2005, are both interested in building a fourth hangar on the property, regardless of Barkley’s particular problem in attracting new GA tenants. “The Federal Aviation Authority’s Airport Improve- ment program makes general aviation airports eligible for grants for hangar funding,” Roof explains. “But, if you’re a Part 139 commercial airport such as we are, we can’t get that as- sistance. So, when you have a small, county airport with a three-to-four-thousand-foot runway and they’re able to get 90 percent of a hangar built, even before any potential state participation, then obviously, their fee struc- ture reflects the fact that their capital invest- ment in that facility is pretty small. And, that’s reflected in the rent. Here, everything has to go on a full-cost basis, which means rent will be higher. So, we have some people who, prob- ably, would like to be based here, but given