News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The Upper Cumberland Regional Airport Board approved Ailevon Pacific Aviation Consulting for commercial air services consulting.
Airport Manager Dean Selby said the next step would be to begin scoping the work in a feasibility study.
“What are we looking for? We’re looking to see if this will work basically,” Selby said. “So what will we need to know? We’ll need to know what are the demographics of the area conducive to this kind of activity, are there airlines that would be interested in that? And which airlines would those be? What size would they be? And any other funding source to try and get this off the ground.”
Selby said that after the scope work was completed, the board can negotiate a price. The board received one other RFQ for consideration from Hubpoint Strategic Advisors. After deliberating between the two, the board decided that Ailevon Pacific scored the highest on all criteria graded including team structure, experience, and completeness.
Selby said that one important step in the process will be looking closely at the grant they received to make sure there are no restrictions. He said that Ailevon would serve as a liaison to ensure optimized choices for the airport.
“It’s not really for building,” Selby said. “This is just for them developing routes, or where it would go, what potential airlines would be interested in coming in here. They will be our go-between for Washington, for FAA, the different airlines, TDOT. They would even help us interface with TDOT over what we need to do to actually have a commercial flight out of this airport to wherever the best that they come up with, or what would provide the best benefit for the people of this area.”
