Yingling Aviation To Open Subway Cafe In One Of Its Hangars

Feb. 27, 2014
The restaurant will have glass walls so customers can view airport activity on the east runway.

Feb. 26--Yingling Aviation, the fixed base operation at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, plans to open a Subway Cafe inside one of its hangars.

The restaurant will have glass walls so customers can view airport activity on the east runway.

It will be the first Subway Cafe franchise of its kind in Kansas. The restaurant offers an expanded menu compared to typical Subways. It also will offer a full range of catering services.

Subway Cafe is expected to open in mid-June, have seating for up to 46 customers and employ 15 to 20 full-time and part-time workers.

Yingling Aviation owner Lynn Nichols has wanted to have a restaurant inside the facility since 2000 when he acquired the operation.

"You could say this plan has been in the works for 14 years," Nichols said in a statement. "It was part of the original vision we had for this business ... and now it's happening."

Nichols' son-in-law, Zach Theademan, will serve as general manager.

The restaurant will be inside the hangar in which Yingling once assembled Cessna Skycatchers, the light sport plane no longer offered by Cessna.

The Subway Cafe will offer Subway's standard menu of sandwiches, salads and breakfast items, as well as a larger selection of breakfast items, pastries and beverages, including espresso lattes and smoothies.

"This is an exciting development for Mid-Continent Airport," Victor White, Wichita Airport Authority director of airports, said in a statement. "It helps fill a void for quick food service for visiting and local general aviation and military aviation customers, as well as the thousands of employees working on the airport campus who don't always have time on their lunch breaks to leave the airport to find a good meal."

It will be the second business housed inside Yingling.

The Aviator's Attic, a pilot shop that offers pilot supplies, aviation-related gifts and apparel, also is operated at the site.

Hutton Construction is the general contractor on the project.

Reach Molly McMillin at 316-269-6708 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @mmcmillin.

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