Airport Director Post Remains Unfilled
New Director Will Be An Employee Of Jacobs Engineering
Belleville, Illinois (May 13, 2002) -- No job offers have been made to potential replacements for former MidAmerica St. Louis Airport Director Floyd "Rick" Hargrove, St. Clair County Board Chairman John Baricevic said.
Hargrove resigned his position suddenly about two months ago. Baricevic said work is being done to find a new airport director.
"We have identified candidates who we are talking to," he said. "I would hope by the end of the month that we'll have some progress on the issue."
The new airport director will be an employee of Pasadena, Calif.-based Jacobs Engineering. While he served as MidAmerica's director, Hargrove was an employee of Sverdup, which Jacobs bought, Baricevic said. Jacobs has a contract with St. Clair County to manage the airport.
"Jacobs isn't going to hire somebody that we don't like," Baricevic said.
Hargrove's last day was March 13. He served as MidAmerica's first director. During his term, Pan American Airways, the only commercial airline that has served MidAmerica, started and stopped service at the airport.
Before serving as director at MidAmerica, Hargrove served as deputy director of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport from September 1989 to October 1994. From 1987 to 1989, Hargrove served as the inspector general for Military Airlift Command at Scott, predecessor to the Air Mobility Command, which coordinates the supplies the transport of people, supplies and vehicles.
Baricevic said the county is looking for someone with leadership skills, airport operations experience, the ability to communicate with regulatory agencies and marketing skills to be the new airport director.
Hargrove's replacement should be a strong salesman and should understand all aspects of the aviation industry, said Steve Lott, business editor of the Aviation Daily newsletter.
"This person really needs to know what niches to go after," he said.
Whoever is brought in as the new director will have a lot of challenges to overcome, Lott said.
"This person shouldn't expect to see results immediately," he said. "This person is going to be starting from scratch."
Even with the challenges, the opportunity to serve as MidAmerica's director could be attractive for some, Lott said.
"There are a lot of people out there who could be attracted to basically starting with a blank slate," he said. "There's still opportunities out there for MidAmerica."
The main priority for the new airport director should be securing new scheduled airline service, said Doug Abbey, the president of AvStat, a Washington, D.C.-based airline industry consulting firm.
While Abbey said that job could be a tough one, the increasing number of smaller, low-cost airlines and the increasing willingness of people to fly them could help MidAmerica attract airline service. Abbey also said the departure of Pan Am from the airport likely will not keep other airlines from being interested in providing service there.
"I don't think the fact they've pulled out of the market is necessarily a black mark," he said. "I don't think most strong or well-run airlines give this version of Pan Am much attention."
Information provided by the Belleville News-Democrat
David van den Berg Article © the Belleville News-Democrat
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