It’s been a busy yr of development for Hollingshead Aviation, certainly one of two service providers at Tennessee’s Smyrna Airport (KMQY). The corporate, which has operated from the previous Smyrna Air Center facility for seven years, has made several upgrades to its property.
Hollingshead is about to wrap up a six-month renovation project at its two-decade-old, 12,000-sq-ft, two-story terminal. Completely gutted and remodeled, the terminal is anticipated to be finished by the top of the yr and can include a pair of 10-seat conference rooms, a pilot lounge with showers, a media room, a flight planning area/business center, and a marble tiled passenger lobby with fireplace.
Brenda Fields, the FBO’s director, looks forward to the project’s completion. “I feel individuals are going to be very impressed after they walk in, not only with the ability, and the commitment the owners have made, however the indisputable fact that what they’re providing is all geared toward making the purchasers comfortable,” she told AIN.
The FBO offers crew cars, a passenger van, concierge service, and rental automotive deliveries to the terminal via Avis, Hertz, and Enterprise.
In October, the corporate accomplished two 60,000-sq-ft heated hangars near its terminal on the west side of the sphere. Able to sheltering the newest ultra-long-range business jets, they convey the complex’s hangar space to 210,000 sq ft. Plans call for the addition of one other three 30,000-sq-ft hangars over the following several years.
The FBO’s leasehold includes 18 acres on the west side of the sphere and a further 22 acres on the east. Business jets and transient aircraft are generally handled on the west side, while the vast majority of the corporate’s based piston aircraft in addition to the ability’s cargo-hauling tenants are on the east side. The airport is five miles from a serious Nissan auto plant, and there may be a brisk business within the parts delivery sector.
Hollingshead’s Avfuel-supplied underground fuel farm is on the east side of the sphere and holds 16,400 gallons of jet-A and 14,000 gallons of avgas. Nevertheless, one other improvement underway is the relocation of its fuel storage to a brand new tank complex on the west side. The above-ground fuel farm with a capability of 40,000 gallons of jet fuel and 15,000 gallons of 100LL is anticipated to be accomplished by the third quarter of 2024, at which period the east-side fuel facility can be decommissioned. Along with a 5,000-gallon jet-A refueler and two 1,000-gallon avgas trucks—certainly one of which is permanently stationed on the east side of the sphere—the operator plans to put in self-serve avgas fueling stations on either side of the sphere.
Open day-after-day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. with after-hours callouts available, the FBO has 24 employees. Fields noted that while summer is the height season for the business, increasing traffic has reached the purpose where operations are regular all yr. KMQY is centrally situated and provides an excellent tech stop for aircraft transiting between Florida and points north. In consequence, the road service, which is trained using the fuel provider’s in-house training program, focuses on quick turns.
“We work very closely as a team to make things comfortable for our customers and make sure that they’re taken care of,” Fields said. “We attempt to make it a really positive experience for them. They enjoy coming in and we enjoy having them.”
Positioned just 14 miles from Nashville, the guts of the country music world, the airport attracts a good variety of A-list performers. “We see plenty of celebrities,” said Fields. “They’re very down-to-earth and so they enjoy it because we treat them like they’re normal people, and so they are.”
The FBO complex has been the setting for music videos, and its hangars have hosted greater than just aircraft, with weddings, baby showers, birthday parties, and even graduation photo shoots going down there. “We’re sort of an all-around style of facility,” explained Fields. “We’re open to all sorts of events.”
The FBO recently hosted gatherings for the Daher TBM and Cessna Citation owners associations that attracted dozens of aircraft. Once every two years, it handles all of the civilian aircraft and performers for the Great Tennessee Airshow, which takes place at KMQY.