The provider of fuel and other services for aircraft at Pryor Field Regional Airport will change next month.

The last day of operations at the airport for North Alabama Aviation FBO will be Oct. 16, and the airport’s owner and governing body, the Pryor Field Airport Authority, will assume fixed-base operator duties the next morning at 8, according to airport manager Adam Foutz.

A fixed-base operator provides fuel and services for transient aircraft and the aircraft of the tenants based at the airport.

“My plan is to make the transition as seamless as possible for the tenants, customers and staff,” said Foutz, the Pryor Field manager since July 2019. “My primary goal is to maintain the existing staff if they want to stay on board.”

In a letter dated last Thursday to the authority, Stan Smith, North Alabama Aviation FBO’s owner, gave a 30-day notice for the closure of LMS & Company LLC, doing business as North Alabama Aviation FBO. On Friday, the authority met in a special session, and voted to accept the closure notice and approved a budget not to exceed $20,000 to obtain insurance for the FBO operations.

Though Smith is closing the FBO operation, he will still be working on aircraft at the airport.

“I have a maintenance shop on the field, and I’m going to continue to do aircraft maintenance there,” Smith said.

The airport manager since August 2000, Smith had resigned from that position effective April 30, 2019, but stayed on until Foutz started the job.

“With the current economic conditions,” including the slowdown in corporate travel, “I’m operating at a loss, so it’s not feasible to continue” with the fixed-base operation, Smith said.

North Alabama Aviation took over as the fixed-base operator at Pryor Field on Dec. 1, 2010, according to Smith’s wife, Beth Smith, who works with the business. She said there are currently three full-time employees.

Smith’s father, Edward Clay Smith, who died in 2007, was also the owner and CEO of a previous fixed-base operation at the airport.

The priority for airport officials is the “continuity of our services and ensuring everything is flowing at the airport,” said authority chairman Nathan Fowler.

“We’re keeping our options open,” whether that’s continuing to run the FBO itself or at some point bidding out that operation, he said. He said airport officials didn’t want to rush into courting a third-party entity for the fixed-base operation. “On down the line, if we decide to bid it out, we’ll have the time to do that and make the right decision,” he said. “We’ll evaluate all our options and make the right decision.”

Foutz said regional airports’ FBOs are commonly operated by the airport owner.

“The closest geographic examples would be Muscle Shoals, Cullman, Guntersville, Scottsboro, and several in Tennessee, including Shelbyville,” he said.

Foutz said the potential for increased income will help expedite needed projects, including the construction of new hangars at Pryor Field for the first time in 20 years.

“We’re excited to start this new chapter,” Foutz said.

— [email protected] or 256-340-2438. Twitter @DD_MAccardi.

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