Business View Magazine | May/June 2022

131 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 5 INDI ANAPOL I S EXECUT I VE A I RPORT the airport. They have constructed the new hangars, they operate all of the refuelling and maintenance capabilities, and they also run the flight school which has Cessna and Cirrus aircraft that are very popular. During the pandemic, there were even more people than usual taking advantage of the flight school, perhaps just because of more free time, but it has allowed them to see new faces flocking to the airport. “First Wing recently merged with Jet Access,” says Sachs, “who operate ten FBOs across four states and have their charter fleet of 52 aircraft. The merger officially took place in December of 2021 and now they are part of this larger umbrella of companies and so they have a decent number of resources, a larger spread, and a larger charter fleet as well. We have a number of those aircraft coming through here now, some are also based here. And what we are seeing is that our facility is being used for a lot of the maintenance. This merger has become a huge boost to the airport and a great addition to our current growth.” Looking ahead, the opportunities are enormous. “There is so much going on,” says Sachs. “The Federal Government has released so much money for infrastructure and that is opening up a lot of possibilities for us. With this most recent funding promise of millions of dollars towards infrastructure, we are looking at a lot of projects. We are in the middle of sitting down and discussing what we should do next – things like new approach lighting systems, ramp size increases, and hangars. Each one is an important project, but we need to see where to start and what steps to take as we seek to modernize and build out the airport. It’s exciting! We are at a pivotal time in the airport and now we have the money to spearhead it!”