Sept. 21, 2016

Laurie Stein, of Stein’s Aircraft Services, wants local businesses to know that Wisconsin’s Kenosha Regional Airport (ENW) can help companies grow – and she’s enlisting the help of No Plane No Gain resources to make her case.

“There really isn’t a significant amount of business aircraft use in the Kenosha market, so we’ve decided that our mission in Kenosha is to engage the community and educate its business leaders that airplanes are an essential tool with phenomenal capabilities,” she said.

Stein plans to launch an education effort with a luncheon at Stein’s Aircraft Services, an aviation services provider located at the airport.

“Our sales and marketing person is knocking on doors now,” she said. When inviting people to the airport luncheon, he gives each of them a copy of No Plane No Gain’s Business Leaders on Business Aviation booklet, which collects insights 25 CEOs from some of the country’s most dynamic and widely known companies, both large and small, who highlight the value of business aircraft to their organizations.

The Stein team is firming up other aspects of the long-term effort “to engage with the community, to become an active part of it and let everyone know that we’re here and how business aviation can serve their many needs.”

“When you look at Kenosha Regional Airport as a whole,” with its control tower, three runways, and instrument approaches, “its location four miles west of the central business district should make it a thriving airport,” said Stein.

Business is growing in Kenosha, and the number of corporate business parks is increasing. Amazon, for example, opened a 1 million-square-foot fulfillment center there last year, hiring more than 1,500 full-time workers.

Stein and her husband Michael founded Stein’s Aircraft Services as an aircraft management company at Wisconsin’s Waukesha County Airport (UES) in 2000. It now provides a full range of business aviation services at both Wisconsin locations, with aircraft based in Raleigh, NC.

“We understand that business aviation is a phenomenal tool,” she said. “For some reason, this message hasn’t gotten to the business leaders in the Kenosha area, and we hope to change that. It’s not only going to benefit the airport and our business, it will benefit those who employ airplanes as business tools.”