Business View Magazine | November 2020

207 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 ready for emergencies such as disaster relief and search missions. Flanking the airfield is the Jimmy Stewart Airport Business Park, a 10-acre corporate and light industrial site offering Keystone Opportunity Expansion Zone program tax incentives for developers and tenants. The Airport is only minutes away from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana Regional Medical Center, area hospitality facilities, the downtown Indiana business district, the corporate headquarters of several financial and medical businesses, and the regional offices of many energy companies. Thus, it is a prime location for regional services and others that rely on convenient air travel. The Airport is also home to 42 GA aircraft. Some years ago, it also supported a small charter service, and Airport Manager, Rick Fuellner, says he would like to get something of that nature back again, in order to better compete with some nearby airfields. “We are in the infant stages of talking with some carriers to get a regional type of jet in here – something that can get you to the major hubs,” he reports. “One of the local airports, a competitor, just changed carriers and there’s a possibility we may be picking up their old carrier and get them based here.” Another competitive challenge, according to Fuellner, is that about a year ago, the Airport lost its avionics shop and mechanics facility when its operators retired. “That has had a huge effect on traffic here,” he opines. The good news is that the void may soon be filled by Innovative Aviation, the flight school on property. “I’ve been working very closely with the owner who has connections in the aviation world for mechanics and an avionics person,” Fuellner says. “And I suspect, that by the end of the year, it’ll be in place and we will have an avionics shop, as well as a new A&P mechanics facility here at the Airport.” Fuellner adds that Innovative Aviation has also reached out to a major university with the notion of partnering with the college, which THE INDI ANA COUNTY J IMMY STEWART A I RPORT