Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 9

208 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 9 in 1905 and has grown to become America’s largest distributor of prepackaged baked goods, is also headquartered in Thomasville and uses the airport for its flight department. They have their own office areas and a reception lounge. Future development is also in the cards for the airport. According to Petty, “On the north end of the airport, we have what is called Payroll Development Land, or PDA, and we hope to attract new businesses there. They can potentially get assistance from the city and county in terms of grants and tax savings based on the number of employees they could potentially bring in and what type of growth they might expect. We are hoping that these incentives help it to grow. When companies come in we do work hard to make sure we can provide what they need. For example, FPL Foods is a meat packaging company that moved into the area after they made a deal with Walmart to provide them with beef. They have a couple of pilots based at the airport and our relationship is “We have a waiting list,” admits Petty, “and actually we double book some of the hangars when the owners are not using them during the offseason. We put some transient users in there. But if the regular renters fly in, we need to move the transient users out to tie-downs. If we had more room, we could sign a lot of lease agreements. Right now, we’re working with the city and the state to develop a hangar site and new apron area so that we could potentially sign companies to ground leases and they can build their own hangars and move forward. We are calling that the Southwest Development Area.” The FBO is run by the Thomasville Regional Airport itself, offering very competitive fuel services while being staffed by paid city employees. In 2005, the airport built a new terminal with a plantation theme that is a popular asset. Also on site is a privately-owned maintenance operation, as well as a plane wash company and a small flight school under private ownership. Flowers Food Services, which began