Elkhart Municipal Airport
March 1, 2016
Elkhart, IN officials feels so strongly that Elkhart Municipal Airport (EKM) is an economic driver for the area, their website states, “More than 1,520 jobs earning an average salary of $69,000 would not exist if not for the presence of the Elkhart Municipal Airport. Or as we like to say, ‘No Plane No Gain’.”
“People don’t always see the airplanes, so they don’t know everything that’s happening at this airport,” said Dave Pixey. “Well, they don’t see them because they’re out flying.” A general aviation pilot, Pixey was appointed director of EKM in January, and took the job eager to promote the airport.
Located 3 miles west of the city, the municipal airport is one of the busiest general aviation airports in Northern Indiana.
“We want people to know the airport is here and we are open for business,” Pixey told local CBS station WSBT. “The guys who use this airport from a business standpoint are the decision-makers who decide whether they are going to do business in Elkhart or not.”
The airport is a vital transportation link for region, and is also the base for several Part 91 flight departments and Travel Management Company, one of the largest charter operators in the country. “They have 68 Hawkers and a King Air based here,” said Pixey, “This is the nerve center.”
Pixey said there’s also a test flying program for the Augusta Westland AW139, where a crew of pilots from Italy determine the helicopter’s performance in icing.
“We have teams flying out of here that carry organs for transplant,” Pixey added. “Those flights are being used for live-saving purposes.”
“Our airport is another of the many tools the city of Elkhart makes available to interested businesses who need to get from point A to point B quick, efficiently and above all safely,” city officials say on the airport’s website, adding that for every dollar used by the airport, $72 dollars are placed back into the community.
“Airports are ambassadors for their communities,” said Bob Quinn, NBAA’s central regional representative. “What you see with Elkhart happens in lots of small towns – the airport has become an asset for economic recovery and growth, for the neighbors as well as the people landing there and taking off.”