2020 SCBIZ Fall

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Bio-Medical Development Opportunity at the crossroads of I-20 and I-77 in Columbia, S.C.

Concept Building Design

CONCEPT DESIGN 8,500 SF ea. floor | Two Story Office 9,000 SF | 25’ Clear Story Bio Manufacturing/Lab 600 SF | Entry Corridor Concept Building Layout Claris Construction

26,600 SF | TOTAL BUILDING

CONTACT: Charlton L. “Chuck” Whipple, SCCED, EcDMP 803.691.3954 | whipplec@midlandstech.edu MIDLANDSTECH.EDU/enterprise

www.scbizmag.com

Reach Ross Norton at 864-720-1222 or @RossNorton13 on Twitter.

TRENDING: AEROSPACE IN S.C.

in South Carolina. Fifty-two are general aviation airports, the busiest being Greenville Downtown Airport, known as GMU to the Federal Aviation Administration. Fifteen of them are, like GMU, are classified as S.C. II corporate/business airports. Stephens said busy flight schools are keeping the flight counts up at some airports, including Greenville Downtown, but those flights don’t make up for lost business travel. “From what I’ve seen operations are not drastically down but fuel revenues are down so what that tells me is flight schools are doing very well,” he said. “So when you look at the operation counts, and because students are flying with instructors, those counts are up, but when you look at the fuel sales that tells me that the corporate guys are not quite back to where they were because they’re your big fuel purchasers.” Even if they are not buying much fuel for now, those flight school students could be economic beneficiaries of the pandemic. As the aviation industry rebalances staffing, some pilots are leaving for good, hastening a predicted pilot shortage, Stephens said. “Prior to COVID-19 we kept hearing about a pilot shortage and a mechanic shortage. They were saying there’s not enough people in the pipeline — the demographic was much closer to retirement, some are calling it quits and that is right-sizing staffing levels as of today,” Stephens said. “But what happens in three years when COVID is gone and the airlines start to track back upward in passenger levels? As passenger levels grow the aircraft that were parked during this are going to have to be put back into the system and as they are, they are going to have to be piloted. So the young pilots that are training today will, in a few years if they’re positioned properly, they’ll be able to get on to a great career at an airline and they should be able to get a good job pretty quickly in the next five years.”

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