Friday, May 21, 2004

No incentive still a good incentive, authority decides By JOHN MUNFORD jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com A company that updates avionics controls in commuter jets may still relocate to Peachtree City’s Falcon Field. For the past several months, representatives of Chippewa Aerospace have haggled with Falcon Field officials to seek incentives for locating at the “Hunting” facility, which has been vacant for years and is located off airport property. To have airport access, Chippewa will need to pay through-the-fence fees and the authority has decided not to discount the fees as previously requested by Chippewa. Thus, Chippewa will pay roughly $1,000 a month based on the fees, which are assessed based on square footage of the building and apron area that can be used for aviation purposes. Although there is no additional incentive, it was noted that the previous tenant paid between $13,000 and $15,000 a month based on the current lease for the building. Those figures were calculated by a different system that the airport formerly used exclusively: charging 2 percent of a businesses’ gross revenues. Allowing Chippewa to use the new fee calculations and save a tremendous amount of money is enough of an incentive, said authority chairwoman Cathy Nelmes. “This is our standard through-the-fence agreement,” Nelmes said. Several minor additions to the agreement will be bartered between Chippewa representatives and airport manager John Crosby before the authority’s June 2 meeting. Chippewa services Canadair Regional Jets and Embraer Regional Jets with 50-, 70- and 90-seat models. The company also outfits Braeisilia turbo prop planes. The company has contracts to service planes for U.S. Airways Express, Mesa Airlines and SkyWest. The company anticipates having 35-40 employees to start with and working toward a capacity for 80 employees eventually.

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