Crossville City Council To Further Discuss Contract Renewal With Azure Flight

The Crossville City Council will further discuss contract renewals with Azure Flight Support to build more hangars at the Crossville Memorial Airport next week.

The company proposed a five year extension with a five year option during a Tuesday work session. Partner Allen Howell said the the current contract expires in May.

“So, we’re asking for a contract extension now versus waiting, because we are looking at potentially start building hangars first of the year,” Howell said. “We would only have four months left in our contract so that is the why.”

Howell said there are plans for four new hangars. Howell said the company is in serious talks with Whisper Aero to fund one of the projects. The technology startup develops electric thrusters for drones and named Crossville as its headquarters last year.

“Not sure how the funding of that would work out, because it is an expensive hangar,” Howell said. “They use special things in the hangar that make it a non-traditional hangar. We will probably come back to the city to talk about that specifically in a discussion.”

Howell said under the contract, the city would receive 60 percent of hangar revenue while Azure Flight earns 40 percent. Howell said the company would also like to sell fuel at the hangars and keep that revenue.

“For us to invest in a hangar, we need to have the fuel cells to go with it,” Howell said. “So if we were to build a hangar and two years from now we are no longer selling fuel, we’re just stuck with hangar revenue rather than having fuel revenue to offset it.”

The contract will be considered by the full city council at its meeting Tuesday of next week.