Business View Magazine Dec-2022

135 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12 ith the bulk of the pandemic behind us, the aviation industry is profiting from steadily increasing passenger traffic, and pilots operating both private and commercial airlines are getting back to business as usual. As numbers are reaching pre-pandemic levels, the need to keep up with airport infrastructure projects remains paramount. For Mt. Pleasant Municipal Airport in Michigan, a host of airport upgrades are in the pipeline as the airport continues to excel in what it does best; provide first-class customer service with the passenger in mind. As airport projects take flight, the city of Mt Pleasant is also profiting, with an influx of business prospects and economic spinoffs that benefit the region. Mt. Pleasant Municipal Airport is a 344- acre, general aviation facility located about two miles northeast of the central business district of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan, a city of more than 21,000 located in the center of the Wolverine State’s Lower Peninsula. The Airport began life as an open grass field, with MT . PLEASANT MUNI C I PAL A I RPORT land donated by the Roosevelt Oil Refinery in the early 1940s, and served as a training site for navy pilots at the start of World War II. In the 1950s, the Airport’s runways were upgraded to limestone, and in the 1960s they were paved. Today, Mt. Pleasant’s main runway, 9-27, measures 5,000 X 100 feet and can accommodate dual- wheeled corporate jet aircraft up to 65,000 lbs., and tandem dual-wheeled aircraft up to 100,000 lbs. Its second runway, 5-23, is a 2,500 X 160-foot turf, cross-wind runway, available for general aviation aircraft, but is unplowed during the winter months. The Airport facilitates approximately 5,000 flights per year, mostly by corporate jets. It has a large, heated corporate aircraft hangar and T-hangars for smaller general aviation airplanes. Bill Brickner, who has been the Airport’s General Manager since 2016, explains that while the facility is owned by the City of Mt. Pleasant, its operations board is made up of representatives from the City, itself, Union Township, Isabella County, the Saginaw/Chippewa Indian Tribe, and the Middle Michigan Development W