Auburn University in Alabama knows a thing or two about aviation. It should, with its predecessor offering aerodynamics instruction as early as 1910, just a scant seven years after the Wright Brothers made their historic first flight. By the early ’30s, aviation administration courses were part of its educational offerings, and in 1939, as the world balanced on a precipice, the university acquired a privately-owned airport—now known as Auburn University Regional Airport (KAUO)—to enable it to participate in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, a federal plan to jumpstart the flow of military pilots in case of war. Nowadays, the university has approximately 600 aviation students at any given time, split between the flight degree program and the aviation management degree.
Since the early 1940s, the school has served the airport’s customers as the lone FBO on the field. Today the Auburn Aviation facility consists of a 26,000-sq-ft, two-story terminal with a life-size sculpture of Auburn’s mascot—a tiger named Bob—painted in the university’s colors and wearing a flight jacket and scarf occupying a place of honor in the lobby.
As well, it includes downstairs and upstairs passenger seating areas, a 14-seat, A/V-equipped conference room, pilot lounge with a pair of snooze rooms, a well-equipped catering kitchen, tenant offices, and a second-floor sheltered terrace with rocking chairs offering prime viewing of activity at the airport. According to airport director Bill Hutto, the airport tallies approximately 100,000 operations a year and the number is rising. Other services include onsite car rental, crew cars, and linen and tableware cleaning. The latter are handled onsite in the FBO these days, but Hutto recalls the days prior to the installation of the kitchen when his staff would take customers’ linens and dishware home with them to launder and wash.
The FBO is home to approximately 100 aircraft, including 11 jets and turboprops ranging from a King Air C90 to Citation CJ4s. The latter are mainly housed in T-hangars but a private developer has plans to build a new complex consisting of five 4,300-sq-ft hangars with construction possibly starting this year. KAUO occupies 423 acres, with the FBO’s ramp accounting for 5.5 of them, but according to Hutto, that isn’t enough. “We desperately need more tiedowns to accommodate the growth,” he said, adding that the airport would like to add another two to three acres of apron in order to accommodate more aircraft. “It depends on how quickly the FAA can help us with it and if they can, but that is one of our big requests right now.”
With college football practically a religion in Alabama, and with Auburn’s Tigers possessing a very passionate fanbase, fall Saturdays that correspond with home game days can see more than 200 aircraft flock to the airport, exacerbating the parking situation.
While the FBO, which is open weekdays from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. and weekends from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m., has seven full-time employees, it also has 17 part-time workers, all trained in the NATA Safety 1st program. With such a large pool of aviation students, it’s only natural that many would wish to work at the airport to soak up as much real-world learning as possible. “It’s not specifically part of the curriculum but we do have many in the degrees, whether professional flight or aviation management, that work here,” said Rick Yerby, the FBO’s manager of aircraft services, adding that employment is not limited to just those programs. “That’s not a requirement, but we have several in our customer service downstairs and about five or six more [out on the line] who are aviation students as well.” Some of those students go on to gain permanent employment at the FBO, including the new assistant airport director, who started there as a line technician.
The location’s World Fuel Services-supplied tank farm consists of a pair of 12,000-gallon storage tanks, one for jet-A and one for avgas. Yerby noted that the airport is considering doubling its jet fuel capacity with the addition of another tank. It is served by 5,000 and 3,000-gallon jet fuelers and a pair of avgas trucks holding 3,000 and 1,000 gallons respectively.
With its main runway length of 5,264 feet, the airport certainly sees its share of large business jets, but Yerby noted it doesn’t matter how his customers arrive. “We treat everybody whether they come in a [Cessna] 150 or a Global with the utmost respect regardless,” he told AIN. “We want you to come in and leave happy.”
- Business Aviation