Western Michigan University’s College of Aviation is exploring the possibility of starting a program in Florida.
Officials have eyed a vacant waterfront building in Punta Gorda, Fla., that once housed a private college. It’s less than five miles from the Punta Gorda Airport south of Tampa on Gasparilla Sound, an arm of the Gulf of Mexico, where flying weather is typically better than that in Michigan.
Dave Powell, dean of the College of Aviation, said the site could be used for an international private pilot training program, which ended in Battle Creek about a decade ago, after the 9/11 attacks prompted airlines to scale back their funding for training.
Demand for pilots has increased as the industry forecasts growth over the next 20 years.
“We’re just truly investigating,” Powell said. “All the different entities that we would have to interface with all have an interest in discussing this further.”
He said operations in Battle Creek, where there are some 800 students currently enrolled, would remain here — but any expansion in Florida could bring a financial boost to both locations amid continued funding cuts. Powell said this year was the first in more than a decade that the aviation program didn’t see its budget slashed.
Powell declined to discuss estimated costs for the new campus, but said the program would be “very small” with about 30 students in the first year. Any growth would be based on the market’s demand, he said.
“What I’m hoping to do is go down and generate a really great program,” Powell said, “and dollars that, potentially, we would be able to make and invest back in the program.”
Tom Patton, Charlotte County economic development director, told the Enquirer that the roughly 53,000-square-foot facility is listed at $6.2 million and would need some improvements after being vacant for a few years. WMU also would need a custom hangar at the airport to store planes and provide pre-flight briefing rooms for students.
Still, Patton said, the facility has a 250-seat auditorium, ideal space for flight simulators and plenty of room for growth. He said that leaves the possibility for other programs to expand to the Punta Gorda area, he said, where there are about 1,300 WMU alumni and many Michigan residents who flock to Florida for winter or retirement.
Officials are working to create a strong local aviation industry in the area. Patton said there have been discussions to create an agreement between WMU and nearby Florida SouthWestern State College for a bachelor’s degree program in flight mechanics.
“We’re trying to attract certain markets to our area,” he said. “We’re not trying to be everything to everyone, so honing in on a specific market makes it a great deal of sense from our side of things.”
“It’s a fantastic discussion and we just keep trying to figure out how to plug the pieces together.”
In October, WMU asked the state for $19 million in capital-outlay funding to renovate the College of Aviation’s 20-acre campus at 237 N. Helmer Road. It would fund renovation and expansion of its Aviation Education Center, including classrooms and research laboratories and improvements for energy, safety and accessibility code issues. If approved, planning and design work on the project could start next summer, the college said.
Jim Hettinger, interim president and CEO of Battle Creek Unlimited and chairman of the WMU Board of Trustees, said the possibility of expanding to Florida would be beneficial for both communities. The “top-end stuff,” he said, including curriculum design and aviation science, would remain in Battle Creek.
“We’re on the leading edge of college aviation and I just think it’s a hell of a compliment that somebody in Florida would say, ‘Come down and help us out,’” he said.
Some 530,000 new commercial airline pilots and more than 580,000 new maintenance technicians will be needed over the next 20 years, according to this year’s outlook by Boeing Co. Some 88,000 of those pilots and 109,000 of those technicians will be needed in North America.
Boeing pointed to airlines’ expanding fleets and flight schedules, along with an “increase trend to outsource maintenance, repair and overhaul activities to third-party providers in emerging markets.”
An airline and commercial pilot’s median pay in 2012 was $98,410, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It said the median pay that year for aircraft mechanics and technicians was $55,230.
“We’re not talking just great jobs,” said Powell, himself a retired airline pilot. “We’re talking great professions.”
Source: http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com
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