Business View Magazine l January 2023

253 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 12 over the years and is seen as reflective of the actual volume of business at the airport. “Premier Air, the company that operates the flying school, also runs a maintenance facility,” says Tate. “It is next door to the flying school, and they have developed a pretty strong reputation over the years. We lease them the building they use, which is about 8000 square feet, along with the old terminal for their flying school. The maintenance facility can typically work on five or six small airplanes simultaneously. So, they do high volume and are usually booked three or four months in advance.” “A lot of business pilots fly their airplanes in from other airports to get their aircraft either repaired here or inspected here. They bring a lot of traffic to this airport that we ordinarily would not have, and they are probably one of our strongest commercial tenants,” Tate explains “By the time all of these projects get launched L INCOLNTON REGIONAL AI RPORT I will be 68 1/2 years old,” concludes Tate. “I am retiring on April 1st. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to quit working – just, that I’m changing gears. But my goal until I leave here is to assist the airport authority in finding my replacement and to try and make that transition as smooth as possible. But mostly I want to see that the launch is successful on all three of these upcoming projects.” Tate is quick to point out that “The next airport manager may have a different agenda from me, but I am confident that I have left a very strong, diverse airport authority that will help bring the transition about without any issues at all. As for me, I’ve owned three airplanes in my lifetime, and perhaps it is time to buy another. I really love travel, perhaps I could even go back to commercial aviation given the pilot shortage, we will just have to see what the future holds.” Tate is gearing up for retirement in the Spring of 2023 and he anticipates turning over the reins of