Business View Magazine Feb 2023

217 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 10, ISSUE 2 LAKE WALES MUNI C I PAL A I RPORT maintenance facility on a land lease agreement. Like many smaller regional airports, Lake Wales traces its history back to the United States Army Air Force, which took a civil airfield and turned it into an auxiliary airfield for the Sarasota Army Airfield in 1943. The airport would revert to the city in 1945 and has continued to grow ever since. “Before the pandemic, in 2019, we saw 11,000 operations, while the total operations for this past year are right at 18,000,” says Lomneck. This represents an increase of approximately 7,000 operations. “I work for the City of Lake Wales and so the airport has a very close relationship with everyone at City Hall. I have weekly meetings with members of management up there so that everybody stays in the same loop,” Lomneck continues. “It is about sharing opportunities and being able to work together on growth. The whole city is growing, and the airport is a part of that which is why we are working to grow our capabilities as well.” In terms of promotion, one of the airport’s main partnerships is with Leadership Lake Wales. This program takes teenagers and adults on tours of the facilities allowing them to experience a different side of aviation. As Lomneck points out, most people only go to commercial airports and fly on jetliners, they have little understanding of any other type of flying. It is also a way for them to be introduced to careers they might not have otherwise considered. “When it comes to infrastructure, we had our fuel farm apron repaved,” Lomneck says. “This also created more tie-down spaces for overnight aircraft. Almost all our pavement except our secondary runway is new within the last three to four years. And then we have the maintenance facility which JUMP built as well as a row of four large corporate hangars which were a private build ground lease. Our largest upcoming project is to rebuild our fuel farm.” Lomneck points out that the airport has two aging 10,000-gallon tanks and with extra funding from the FAA and the Florida Department of