Texas pilot-training company firming up plans to come to Cape

Denton, Texas-based U.S. Aviation Group (USAG) plans to move into 1,400-square-feet of rented office space at Cape Girardeau Regional Airport around April 1, according to airport manager Katrina Amos, as the company prepares to start a degree program at Southeast Missouri State University to educate and train aviation pilots.

Amos, who became manager of the facility in northern Scott County in February, said USAG is also going to rent 1,700-square-feet of hangar space for maintenance.

USAG will bring as many as three Cessna 172 aircraft to the airport by July 1.

“We like to keep an eight-to-one ratio of students to aircraft and we are hoping for 20-to-25 students in the first class,” said USAG executive vice president Mark Taylor on Monday.

“They prefer to park the planes outside on the ramp unless there is inclement weather,” Amos added.

U.S. Aviation signed a partnership agreement Dec. 4 with airport officials and Southeast to launch a four-year Professional Pilot degree program at the university beginning in the fall semester.

It is Southeast’s second foray in off-the-ground education.

Four years ago, the university started an unmanned aircraft systems (drone) degree program.

“(U.S. Aviation) will have a break room and will occupy multiple offices in Hangar 71,” said Amos, who added the company will sign a five-year lease.

Hangar 71 is also known as Commander Hangar.

Students will receive practical, hands-on instruction at the airport while classroom work will occur on Southeast’s Cape Girardeau campus.

The university announced last week the appointment of Ken Jackson, former Dexter, Missouri, school superintendent and a private pilot himself, as the university’s first director of aviation operations.

“We were very pleased to hear of (Ken’s) selection and we welcome that news,” Taylor said.

Expectations

Taylor said he expects to have 10-to-12 employees working out of the airport initially, including an office manager, flight instructors, dispatchers and a minimum of three maintenance workers.

“There is sufficient room for us to grow (in Cape Girardeau),” said Taylor, who added the company’s largest collegiate program at Tarrant County College, housed at Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas, now has 140-to-150 students.

Taylor said in December USAG has never before had an operation in the Midwest but has two pilot college programs in Texas and one in New York, noting the company’s largest program with 250 students is at corporate headquarters in Denton.

USAG, which started to train pilots 13 years ago, said it has hired graduates of its own program and has employment connections with United and Southwest Airlines, plus Envoy Air, a regional carrier formerly known as American Eagle.

Forecast

The aviation technology firm CAE, in its 2020-2029 “Pilot Demand Outlook,” suggests the future is bright in the industry.

“There will be a short-term need for approximately 27,000 new professional pilots beginning in late 2021 with demand continuing through the decade as the industry is expecting to need more than 260,000 new pilots,” the CAE report states.