Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 7

153 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 7 Manager of the Bay City Regional Airport, “and I was just thinking about it and wondering if there was more we could do with the water. Traditionally, an airport can only make money one of two ways – either with fuel sales or rental spaces. But here is the thing… construction companies in the area need water, and right now their tanker trucks go to the center of Bay City, disrupt traffic, and put a real burden on the water system. So I got to thinking, what if we upsized the capacity of our well and sell bulk water to construction companies?” Bay City Airport, being out in the country, means people wanting water would not have to drive all the way downtown during the middle of a busy shopping day. “And the airport is more conveniently located close to the building areas,” says Mason. “It would cost us nothing, we are already drilling the new well, and for a very insignificant upgrade we could sell fresh water.” “But airports don’t do that,” he jokes, “well… at one point in time airports did not sell maps. At one point in time airports did not sell cups BAY C I TY REGIONAL A I RPORT of coffee. Someone had to ask, why don’t we start selling these items? And it just worked. So hopefully we are on to something here!” There are other creative things the airport does, not just to make money, but to promote the love of flying and give back to the community. For example, the Santa Flights. Mason kept hearing that the airlines were going to run out of pilots due to retirement, and when he looked around, there were not a lot of kids or young people coming to the airport. So, he decided to get Santa to fly in for Christmas. With the help of a High School Drama program, they set it up so Santa flies in with his elves and gathers the local kids for a story reading, and hot chocolate, and a toy bag they can choose a gift from. The book they read tells about the time when Santa’s sleigh broke down and he had to borrow a jet to get the presents delivered. The program started with 20 kids and now has 200. Another idea they began was “Fly-in Movies” which are just like the drive-in, only they happen on an apron and you can fly to the airport to