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Airport Board to Meet With Prospect Today: Company Looking for Kentucky Location

Posted on: Saturday, 28 January 2006, 15:00 CST

By Keith Lawrence, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

Jan. 28--Owensboro-Daviess County Regional Airport's board of directors will meet at 1 p.m. today with an out-of-state company that's considering hangar space at the airport.

The company, reported to be a cargo carrier, has not been identified.

And no action is planned at today's meeting, Airport Manager Tim Bradshaw said.

"We hope to have a decision by our Feb. 20 meeting," he said. "It's a very exciting prospect, and it sounds very promising."

Bradshaw said the company is looking for a Kentucky location.

"It would bring jobs and business to the community," he said.

Bradshaw said he couldn't say how many jobs are being discussed or provide any other information about the company.

But cargo operations are something the airport has been courting since 1988.

That's when it made the short list for a $75 million Federal Express maintenance operations facility that would have employed 800 people.

When the facility was built in Memphis, Tenn., instead, local officials began working to extend and strengthen the airport's runways.

A $12 million expansion, which includes a 1,500-foot extension of the north-south runway to 8,000 feet, is scheduled for completion in 2007.

The runways are being designed to handle 757s, which Bradshaw said earlier is now the standard for the cargo industry.

The airport has had at least one nibble in recent years, but nothing has come of it.

In February 2000, Vision Airways, a start-up Tennessee-based company, announced plans for a $3.6 million corporate headquarters and 100,000-square-foot cargo hub at the airport.

"Our biggest potential is as a cargo operator," Bradshaw said in 2002. "That's the crown jewel in our plans. Our location makes us attractive for a cargo operation."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.

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Source: Messenger-Inquirer

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