Kentucky Cargo Company Moving to Owensboro Airport Hangar This Summer

Mar. 21 -- Springfield-based Midline Air Freight hopes to move into a hangar at Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport by June, creating eight to 10 jobs.

The airport board Monday approved a lease on the hangar in the name of Midline's parent company, Georgia-based CorpJet.

Bruce Hudson, Midline's director of maintenance, said the first jobs will include mechanics, dispatchers and pilots.

Within six months, he said, Midline plans to have 15 employees in Owensboro. And within two years, employment should grow to around 25, he said.

The air cargo company may eventually add some cargo handling jobs in Owensboro, Hudson said. But, he said, there are no plans for local warehouses.

Midline hauls freight for UPS as well as newspapers for the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Nick Brake, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corp., said: "It's a positive move to tie the airport to economic development opportunities. Hopefully, this will spawn other opportunities."

The board sees air cargo as an important part of the airport's future.

That's the main reason for the $12 million expansion -- which includes a 1,500-foot extension of the north-south runway to 8,000 feet -- that's scheduled for completion in 2007.

J. Todd Inman, chairman of the Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce as well as an airport board member, said last month that Midline is important because "this is the first time an established air cargo company has come to us."

"Our fuel flow fees are half what some airports are charging," Inman said. "We offer a lot of advantages."

The airport has been courting cargo operations since 1988-89, when Owensboro made the short list for a $75 million Federal Express maintenance operations facility that would have employed 800 people.

It went to Memphis, Tenn., instead.

"Our biggest potential is as a cargo operator," airport manager Tim Bradshaw said in 2002. "That's the crown jewel in our plans."

Midline is a small step. But it's in the right direction, board members said.

To see more of the Messenger-Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.messenger-inquirer.com. Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail [email protected].

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.