A team of airport development specialists will plan how the Greenwood-Leflore Airport board can attract new businesses to the airport.
The airport board Tuesday authorized Bardin Redditt, the airport manager, to negotiate a contract with Airport Development Group Inc. The contract should be ready by mid-March.
Jim Sirhall, the group's president, will manage the project. Airport Development Group Inc. has worked with airports for nearly 21 years. Some of its projects include development of Stennis International Airport in Bay St. Louis. That project began in 1996.
The Denver-based group opened an office in Jackson late in 2004. Just last year, Cleveland selected the group to conduct its environmental assessment. The group was selected in June 2005 as a consultant for the Panola County Airport in Batesville.
Airport Development Group Inc. will team with Tri-Star Marketing Co. and its president, Fred Davis.
For 17 years, the Huntington Beach, Calif. company has served as consultants to airlines for route development, marketing programs, international sales and business planning for start-up companies.
During the last eight years, Tri-Star has turned its attention toward working with airports to increase business opportunities, increase new revenue by recruiting passenger and cargo services and new businesses and aviation programs that include local airports.
That's seemingly what the Greenwood-Leflore Airport Board has in mind, according to its secretary, Richard Dillon.
The airport wants to generate money for its operations through land rentals and fees for services, such as providing fuel.
The board will use about $50,000 of a $100,000 grant from the Mississippi Department of Transportation to pay for the plan.
The team expects to develop the airport as a business unit, not just a general aviation airport, to develop a business plan and a marketing action plan.
The plan should take about six months to develop, and marketing could take place over several years.
After that, performance-based incentives come into play.
Sirhall proposed Tuesday that the payment ought to match "1 percent of the payroll of the new or expanded business" without going over the present $100,000 budget.
This approach is unusual, Davis said.
"Business planning at airports in the United States is not normally done," he explained because funding usually comes from the federal government.
Presently, there are four aviation-related industries operating at the airport located 10 miles east of Greenwood.
Three years ago, Greenwood-Leflore Airport was a finalist in the recruiting battle for a new helicopter manufacturing and assembly facility. American Eurocopter Corp. eventually settled on a site near Columbus.
The 100-acre tract the airport had pitched to American Eurocopter is still available, plus there are another 1,000 acres around the airport that potentially could be developed.
