Business View Magazine - Dec 2023

younger retirement age is possible, they’ll take it. He opines that getting rid of the 1,500 hours of flight training rule might help. “I know that’s sacrilege,” he adds,“but it would make more sense to make that training competency- based, rather than hour-based.” As for their more youthful counterparts, some, especially veterans of recent military experience, are quite accomplished, whereas others need more time. The length of time to acquire competency varies from pilot to pilot. Gross also discussed infrastructure. He cited the business park. “We’ve completed a 1,700-foot extension to the roadway through the park that has water, sewer and power running along the length of the road,” he notes. Further, LEB is among the airports benefitting from federal funding. This will result in a new air traffic control tower. It provides all the fueling, including for Cape Air, and hangar services for corporate aircraft. Granite has a maintenance staff on the field. Open daily, 6 a.m.-10 p.m., it provides very good service with the corporate traffic, says Gross, citing co-ordinating rental cars, catering and more. “They do a very good job with customer service,” he adds, “just exceptional, from what I’ve seen.” BOUNCING BACK During the COVID pandemic restrictions, LEB lost nearly two-thirds of its commercial passenger traffic, as Gross reveals. Charter flights, however, helped make up for this. He also cites the ongoing pilot shortage, which he puts down in large measure to the Baby-Boomers retiring faster than following generations entering the labor market.As a potential solution, some have advocated raising the retirement age for pilots (possibly as high as 70 years of age), but Gross doesn’t think that’s a realistic answer. Gross says that based upon his conversations with pilots, if a 353 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 12 LEBANON (N.H. ) MUNICI PAL AI RPORT