Henry Lowe has seen the Macon-Bibb Airport Industrial Park change over the years, and now, he says they're nearing capacity. "Until someone else decides to build on, we might not have space," said Lowe.
Stephen Adams, head of the Macon-Bibb Industrial Authority, says empty space is what they sell. They've had a lot of success in the last couple of months -- the old Bombardier hangar was unoccupied when President Trump visited in November. Shortly after, the visit, the Industrial Authority announced Stevens Aviation, a maintenance company would move into the space, bringing in more than 100 jobs. Embraer announced they were going to double the number of jobs at their hangar after 3 months of doing business in Bibb County.
Erick D'Leon, Macon-Bibb airport director, says right now the airport is limited to the size of planes coming in. D'Leon says the next step is the runway extension, which Adams says that runway extension is the key to bringing in companies that service larger planes. "If the hangars are full, that's a really good thing. We've been full before and we've had a lot of operations that have come and gone. That's just the way of businesses -- everything changes," said Lowe. He just hopes this time they don't go anywhere.
In the last two years, they had two big companies, Boeing and Bombardier, move out. The Industrial Authority reports that they've been able to replace those jobs that were lost.