Without much fanfare, PTI becoming a powerful economic force Fanfare

Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, No. 1

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A mechanic walks through a massive hangar at Piedmont Triad International Airport where planes are serviced and maintained. “We have over 5,200 people employed at the airport,” said Steve Showfety, chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. “We are one of the largest internal drivers of the local economy.”

Piedmont Triad International Airport is only a modest success as a passenger airport. Its terminal, while modern and spacious, is rarely crowded and security lines are relatively quick.

Lisa Shoemaker works on the landing gear of a cargo plane while co-worker Robert Hancock (left) assists, Friday, April 1, 2016, inside a hangar at PTI airport in Greensboro, N.C.

PTI Airport is rapidly fulfilling its promise as a growth engine for economic development as it opens up 600 acres of land accessible by a bridge from the western runway. The new roadway looks across Bryan Blvd. to FedEx as work is under way on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, in Greensboro, N.C..

PTI Airport is rapidly fulfilling its promise as a growth engine for economic development with some counting 8,000 direct and related aviation jobs. Chase Newquist and Carlton Capers a second year students, enrolled at GTCC aviation electronics curriculum, work together to wire a G1000 GPS rack on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, in Greensboro, N.C.

000 at its five hangars to maintain and repair jets from around the world. Fanfare , HAECO opened a fifth hangar that will ultimately employ 500 people. The company currently employs more than 1,000 at its five hangars to maintain and repair jets from around the world.

w Honda Aircraft Co., which makes the HondaJet small aircraft, is headquartered on the airport’s eastern side, employing nearly 2,000 people.

Photos by the News & Record and courtesy of HondaJet

Without much fanfare, PTI becoming a powerful economic force

Fanfare

A mechanic walks through a massive hangar at Piedmont Triad International Airport where planes are serviced and maintained. “We have over 5,200 people employed at the airport,” said Steve Showfety, chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. “We are one of the largest internal drivers of the local economy.”

Piedmont Triad International Airport is only a modest success as a passenger airport. Its terminal, while modern and spacious, is rarely crowded and security lines are relatively quick.

Lisa Shoemaker works on the landing gear of a cargo plane while co-worker Robert Hancock (left) assists, Friday, April 1, 2016, inside a hangar at PTI airport in Greensboro, N.C.

PTI Airport is rapidly fulfilling its promise as a growth engine for economic development as it opens up 600 acres of land accessible by a bridge from the western runway. The new roadway looks across Bryan Blvd. to FedEx as work is under way on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, in Greensboro, N.C..

PTI Airport is rapidly fulfilling its promise as a growth engine for economic development with some counting 8,000 direct and related aviation jobs. Chase Newquist and Carlton Capers a second year students, enrolled at GTCC aviation electronics curriculum, work together to wire a G1000 GPS rack on Tuesday, March 29, 2016, in Greensboro, N.C.

s In April, HAECO opened a fifth hangar that will ultimately employ 500 people. The company currently employs more than 1,000 at its five hangars to maintain and repair jets from around the world.

w Honda Aircraft Co., which makes the HondaJet small aircraft, is headquartered on the airport’s eastern side, employing nearly 2,000 people.

Photos by the News & Record and courtesy of HondaJet

— Kevin Baker sits in his blue SUV beside the western runway at Piedmont Triad International Airport as an American Airlines jet taxis for takeoff.

As PTI’s executive director, he has the run of the place. Whether it’s driving on a small service road a few hundred yards from the 9,000-foot runway or four-wheeling across 1,000 acres of industrial land, his turf is rapidly expanding.

Without much fanfare, the airport is becoming a powerful job creator and will soon offer enough land to attract even the largest aircraft manufacturer or related industry to an expansive site with direct access to runways.

In the past year, the airport has begun grading 200 acres near a massive bridge strong enough to carry jumbo jets over Interstate 73 on the airport’s western edge.

With industrial space getting tight on the airport’s eastern side, this land to the west represents a promise of growth for the future.

“We want to be prepared,” Baker said, “and we are.”

If the airport’s current economic success is a guide to that future, a high-profile mix of international corporate players will continue to seek out the spacious industrial sites between Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem.

“We have over 5,200 people employed at the airport, Fanfare , chairman of the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority. “We are one of the largest internal drivers of the local economy.”

The airport’s marquee companies are among the best-recognized employers in the region.

Honda Aircraft Co., which makes the HondaJet small aircraft, is headquartered on the airport’s eastern side, employing nearly 2,000 people.

In April, HAECO opened a fifth hangar that will ultimately employ 500 people. The company currently employs more than 1,000 at its five hangars to maintain and repair jets from around the world.

Nearby, Cessna has its East Coast maintenance operation.

Baker said. Fanfare , Baker said.

PTI is only a modest success as a passenger airport. Its terminal, while modern and spacious, is rarely crowded and security lines are relatively quick.

Dwarfed by hubs at Raleigh-Durham International and Charlotte-Douglas airports, PTI carried about 880,000 passengers in 2017 on five airlines including two low-fare carriers, Frontier and Allegiant.

Big news for 2018 is the arrival of Spirit Airlines — something Showfety believes is a turning point at PTI.

The airline will begin flights from PTI in September to several Florida destinations.

Showfety said if passengers support Spirit on these routes, the airline could begin adding other destinations in its 60-city network.

“If we can show them this market has the capacity to go to other destinations ... maybe we can get routes to Boston, Baltimore and the Midwest,” Showfety said. “This is a breakout opportunity for the Triad because we haven’t had the services from our legacy airlines at the price point Spirit is offering.”

The airline has relatively new, full-size aircraft that provide a high level of service, he said.

“If we’re not successful in supporting Spirit Airlines, that is going to be a bellwether monitor for this community,” Showfety said. “If nothing else they’re going to cause fares to drop at this airport.”

Passenger traffic has been growing steadily in 2018 and that is always a good sign, Showfety said.

“If they weren’t improving I’d be deeply concerned,” he said.

Still, the airport is having a bit of an identity crisis.

In late 2017, the airport authority announced PTI would be called Central Carolina International Airport only to rescind that plan after public outcry.

“We had gone through a series of options and landed for one reason or another where we did,” Showfety said. “We followed the same procedures that the airport authority did in 1988 when they changed the name from Greensboro-High Point-Winston-Salem to Piedmont Triad International. We realized very quickly that we hit a nerve in the community. We elected to do what was the right thing to do and that was to completely tap the brakes.”

PTI’s governing board has been acquiring land around the airport for more than a decade.

The airport, whose annual budget comes from landing fees and not local taxes, is a completely independent operation. Many of its capital projects are funded either through federal or state assistance and bond issues.

As Baker’s SUV bumps up and down the hills to the west of the airport, he waves his hand toward the horizon and envisions flat industrial sites.

Whole hillsides will be leveled if his dream comes true: recruiting what’s known as an OEM — or original equipment manufacturer — to the airport. A company like Boeing would be the ultimate OEM prize because thousands would be employed.

Baker said the aviation education offered at Guilford Technical Community College and some high schools is creating a “deep bench” of talented workers that could fill such jobs.

Back in a wood-paneled conference room at the airport office, Baker projects photos and maps that show the vast land and road network that now expands far beyond the runways and terminal.

“A site selection consultant sat in this room,” Baker recalled, “and she said this could well be the best aerospace site in the country.”

The taxiway bridge over Interstate 73 is the pivotal piece of infrastructure that makes this future possible. Fanfare

Built on a series of four massive steel and concrete boxes, the bridge is situated so thousands of motorists pass under it every day without realizing its expanse — the size of two football fields — could someday bring the spectacle of a jumbo jet in a slow taxi above the roadway.

If the airport were to land an OEM, that could attract suppliers to the region and create thousands more jobs.

“If we’re able to nail a large OEM, that’s going to have benefits that we can’t even imagine,” Baker said.

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