Business View Magazine l October 2022

195 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 10 CORPUS CHR I ST I INTERNAT IONAL A I RPORT seats on the market, mainly due to the pilot and flight crew shortage. All the airlines are flying at 90% load capacity.” Recognizing this, Del Mar College, which operates an A&P mechanic school at the airport, has recently been in talks over the possibility of creating a flight school/pilots program. The airport is also doing an appraisal of the possibility of creating a second FBO on the field. Atlantic has been operating wonderfully, but there is so much traffic now that Sterling Aviation, a tenant that owns a small fleet of planes, has begun to sell fuel and operate following the expected standards of an FBO while awaiting certification. “Once they meet those standards and are certified, they have six months to alter their lease agreement, to increase to the minimum six acres required and become a second FBO here,” Smith explains. “The great thing about this is that Sterling HOME OF UNMANNED FLIGHT One of 7 FAA test sites and the only site in Texas. The center specializes in: • Autonomous flight/airworthiness testing • UAS Traffic Management • Ground and airborne detect-and-avoid technologies • Beyond visual line of sight infrastructure • Command and control link issues • Environmental impacts of UAS operations Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi is home to the Lone Star Unmanned Aircra‚ System Center of Excellence and Innovation. Since its inception in 2014, the center has flown over 4,300 flights, completed 250 public safety missions (real-world and training), and is a proud partner of the Corpus Christi International Airport.