30 Seconds with Jared Smith

Image courtesy Jared Smith

Airport commission chairman discusses recent improvements

What has been your experience so far with the commission?
Jared Smith: You’ve got professionals from all over the parish who are a part of that commission. Each of them brings a unique perspective, which is just amazing—to hear new ideas and people’s views of problems and solutions. I’ve enjoyed that. It’s been a meeting of the minds to solve problems and make the airport a better place. I’ve grown to appreciate how incredibly nice our airport is. If you travel to other regional-size airports, you appreciate how fantastic our facilities are.

You mentioned that being on the commission has become a personal passion. What do you mean by that?
J.S.: Our airport is a unique partner in economic development. You’ve got all kinds of businesspeople traveling in and out of the airport. They’re an important source of access to the outside world for us. But we also have 700 acres of developable land. With that comes very good incentives for a business to be located there. I just wanted to play a personal role in helping shape that, bringing new business and ideas to the airport and to the parish.

Within that land is the Aviation Business Park. How is that coming along?
J.S.: It’s coming along well. Part of that land is a certified site with Louisiana Economic Development. We spent a lot of time doing upfront research on a piece of property so that a company considering locating on that land doesn’t have to. Currently, some companies at the park are EBR Office of Emergency Preparedness, Coca-Cola, All-Star Chevrolet and BRCC School of Aviation. Express Jet has a maintenance center there, and we’ve had movies filmed there with indie stages.

What other businesses could come to the park?
J.S.: The airport right now would consider anything that makes sense. This is so important because the airport, it’s self-funded. That is a very big deal that people may not realize. It’s not a drain on the general fund in the parish. As they develop more land, more businesses locate there. That creates new revenue streams so that the airport can fund any type of new expansions.

What are some developments that have taken place at the airport in the last year?
J.S.: There are tons of new facilities out at the airport. We’ve redone all the restrooms. The TSA security points have been redesigned. WOW American Grill and Wingery came in, and the entire restaurant facility has been redone. It’s a much nicer place to sit down and eat and enjoy your food. We’ve got a new vending facility. The rotunda is brand new. My kids enjoy it because they can wait and see the planes coming in and out of the airfield. The airport has an average of 300 or so aircraft operations daily. The vast majority of those operations are smaller planes.