GTRA IS TAKING FLIGHT WITH MIKE HAINSEY
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE REGIONAL AIRPORT MIKE HAINSEY REFLECTS ON HIS TIME AS A PILOT IN THE AIR FORCE AND THE IMPACT IT HAS ON HIS CURRENT ENDEAVORS
Mike Hainsey can't tell you how many landings he made during his 22 years with the U.S. Air Force. Whatever that number might be, it's one fewer than the number of takeoffs. Hainsey used that fact during training flights with student pilots, the kind of ice-breaker sure to get his student's attention. “We'd be up there, and I'd casually say, 'Did I ever tell you about the time I was doing this same training flight and the wing fell off?'”
This year marks Hainsey's 15th year as Executive Director of the Golden Triangle Regional Airport. He had served as deputy director under another retired Air Force vet, former Columbus Air Force Base Wing Commander Nick Ardillo for almost two years before ascending to the job upon Ardillo's retirement.
Arriving at a time when GTR was facing an existential crisis – Northwest Airlines had shut down its service at the airport, instantly cutting the small regional airport's revenue by a third – Hainsey has overseen a period of remarkable growth and expansion. Today, at a time when only three regional airports in the state are financially self-sustaining and small regional airports throughout the country are in a precarious position, GTR hasn't simply survived, it has thrived as two expansions, a run-way extension, an added flight to Atlanta and the dogged pursuit of a westbound flight to Dallas clearly indicates. Passenger records fall on a monthly basis. Overall, passenger traffic has increased by almost 60 percent in the last 15 years. Suffice to say, GTR is lucky to have Hainsey.
Hainsey, an Air Force Academy graduate, received his pilot training at Columbus Air Force Base in 1977, training to fly B-52s. For the next 10 years, he flew a variety of assignments eventually becoming a flight trainer for student pilots at CAFB.
“It was back in 1986,” Hainsey recalled. “I was out flying acrobatics, teaching one of the students in a T-38. The wing broke off in the middle of acrobatics.” In a matter of seconds, the plane plummeted to earth in a chaotic series of tumbles and rolls. “The student got out fairly early, but his parachute got tangled. He was able to get untangled at about 1,000 feet. Because of my position in the plane, I had more trouble. I had a hard time getting to the ejection levers with the G-forces being what they were. About two seconds before the plane crashed, I was able to get to the levers. I was probably about 500 feet.” Hainsey smashed head-first into a tree just feet above the ground. “I was knocked out cold,” he said.
It might be an exercise in overstatement to attribute much of what happened during that few seconds of terror from something that happened 34 years ago to Hainsey's subsequent success, both in the Air Force and now as GTR's executive director, but how Hainsey responded to that horrific event does speak to a quality that has persisted throughout his career: Resilience.
Six months after the near fatal crash, Hainsey was back in the cockpit, cracking his “Did I ever tell you about the time?” ice-breaker on student pilots. Hainsey went on to serve another 13 years in the Air Force before retiring with the rank of Lt. Colonel as the Deputy Director of Flying Operations at CAFB in 1999. Four years later, after serving as a sim instructor at CAFB, Ardillo made Hainsey his hand-picked successor, showing him the ropes for two years before retiring. “Mike and I had worked together in Texas and here at Columbus Air Force Base,” Ardillo said. “When I was wing commander here, Mike was my chief of safety. One of the first things we did together here at the airport were disaster services. Mike was at CAFB as a sim-instructor, but he was also head of the Civil Air Patrol at the time. It was very obvious that during the exercises, Mike was the one who had the best handle of how things should be done. I knew then he would be great at the airport and that's proven true. I can't say enough good things about what Mike has done as the director.”
Hainsey's ties to the Air Force continued a tradition for the GTR director. Prior to Ardillo's arrival, Gene Smith, another Air Force vet who survived a long stint at a POW during the Vietnam War, was the director for close to 20 years. Hainsey said the Air Force experience served him well in the job. “In the Air Force I learned leadership and management,” Hainsey said. “I also got to be very good about watching how you spend, being frugal and managing what you have properly.”
MASTERING NEW CHALLENGES
However, there was skill, the Air Force didn't prepare Hainsey for. “I didn't learn anything about how to raise money,” he said. “That's something I had to find out on my own.” He had to learn it quickly, too. In his first year, the loss of Northwest Airlines resulted in a $150,000 deficit on a $1 million budget. Most regional airlines rely on federal subsidies to survive so budget deficits are the norm, but for Hainsey it was alarming. He set out to make sure GTR could stand on its own.
“I learned very quickly where to find grants and funding,” Hainsey said. “That's a huge part of the job. It still is.”
One of the first responses to the loss of Northwest was to convert airport-owned property for commercial use. That opportunity arrived almost immediately when American Eurocopter, announced its intention to build a plant in Mississippi. GTR seized the chance, building an 85,000 square-foot facility it leased to Eurocopter (now Airbus). Today, GTR leases 300,000 square feet of facilities used by Airbus, Aurora Flight Sciences and Stark Aerospace.
Hainsey said GTR's connection to the area industry is a big part of the airport's success. “About 80 percent of our business is business travel,” Hainsey said. “And about 10 percent of that is international travel, about twice as much as you'll find at most regional airports. Mike Boyd, one of the top consultants in the business, will tell you, 'It's not about getting mom and dad to Disneyland. It's about getting the CEO of Yokohama to West Point.” Golden Triangle Development LINK CEO Joe Max Higgins, who arrived in Columbus about a year before Hainsey came to GTR, said Hainsey has been a key figure in the area's economic development efforts. “Mike is one of the first people we introduce when we bring in a prospect,” Higgins said. “He's helped us in so many of the things we've done here. He's very hands-on and he's always working to expand and improve the airport. Everything he does out there makes our area more appealing to companies looking to move or expand.”
Likewise, CAFB remains an essential part of GTR's mission.
“About 62% of the traffic is from the Air Force base,” Hainsey said. “The Air Force is in a position where they need more pilots, which means more training flights. They can't do it all at the base, but we're just 12 air miles away. They can make up flight hours that may have been lost due to weather or repairs at the base. They don't fly on the weekends at the base, so if they need to make up flight hours, they fly in and out of here on the weekends.”
“It's good financially, but I could give you about 20 reasons why having that relationship with the Columbus Air Force base is good for us.”
LOOKING AHEAD
Some things never change. That's especially true at airports. “There's always a need you need to address,” said Hainsey, 63. “Beyond regular maintenance, paving is always something you are either doing or planning to do. Spending comes in about $5,000 to my budget even though our revenues are increasing. That money goes to things we know we need to do.”
“To give you an example, this year we bought a pick-up (truck) for our maintenance. We hadn't been able to do that for years.” The next big project is replacing the run-way lights, which is no small expense. “In this business, there is always some big need just around the corner,” Hainsey said. “You have to plan and prepare for that.”
For the past four years, Hainsey has been working to bring a west-bound flight to GTR, a difficult goal in an era when major airlines are reducing, not adding flights. He's hopeful GTR's track record will help make his case.
“When Delta added their fourth flight, after two-and-a-half months, we were running the same occupancy rate on all four flights,” Hainsey said. “That shows any other airline that we don't have enough capacity. We can fill those seats. I think that helps them realize that if they come here, there's a really good chance they're going to be profitable. I'm still optimistic that we'll get west-bound air service. I think we have a lot to offer.”
STORY BY SLIM SMITH
TOWER PHOTOS BY AUSTIN FRAYSER
ALL OTHER PHOTOS BY LEDRICO ISAAC
