Commercial flight consultants can begin presenting their qualifications to the Upper Cumberland Regional Airport.
The Airport Board approved publishing the request Thursday night. Airport Manager Dean Selby said the airport can get answers to unknown questions, like airlines to partner with and the best destinations.
Selby said there is already buzz about how this region is under served, needing an air carrier.
“I’ve actually had three consultants call from other states, who we’ve had discussions with about the possibility that they want to respond to this RFQ,” Selby said. “And about their positive attitude towards the area and what they think, now that they have looked at it and they’re like, ‘wow, how did we miss this whole region?”
Selby said that consultants have until October 29 to present their qualifications to him. He said presentations will be reviewed until a selection is made at the end of the year.
“We will hire them to help us, number one, a feasibility study,” Selby said. “What are the demographics in the area, where are these people going? What do we need to do, who would be the best to partner with? Where would be the best destination for us to go to? Would it be a direct flight, would it be a connection? All of those questions that quite honestly, we don’t have access to that data, a lot of that data is pay per use data and these consultants already have access to a lot of it.”
He said the consultant will begin their work at the start of 2022. Selby said that based on what he has heard, this initial process of going through the data should take about six months.
“I think we’ve got some good potential here,” Selby said. “I really think this is something made to work. It’s not going to happen next year, it’s going to take a little time to implement all of these changes but I think it is something that could really happen.”
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