Doug Schmor introduced our guest speaker, Mike Doil, the Business Development Manager at the Jackson County Airport. Mike began this new position in April moving from Los Angeles and resides in Jacksonville.
Mike’s excitement about the current state and the future of the airport was evident as he provided us with several several interesting facts:
- the airport is back to 98% of its passenger level from 2019 (pre-COVID) as compared to the national average of 88%
- the airport currently flies non-stop to 11 different destination cities
- a traveler can reach over 600 different destinations with just one-stop
- discussions are underway to explore adding another terminal to the airport.
- current estimates are that this new terminal would add an additional 6-8 gates
Earlier in the club meeting, Brian Watkins’ inspiration was centered on aviation and included the following quote from Bill Gates, “The Wright Brothers created the single greatest cultural force since the invention of writing. The airplane became the first World Wide Web, bringing people, language, ideas and values together.”
