After a COVID-19-prompted work slowdown earlier this year, Corporate Air’s $2.6-million expansion at Vero Beach Regional Airport is back in gear, with completion of a new ramp and hangar slated for the end of July, according to company owner Rodger Pridgeon.
“The ramps are paved, and the hangar is about 50 percent,” said Pridgeon.
The project broke ground in November and was initially scheduled for completion in April, a date that got pushed back by the pandemic. The project includes a 12,000-square-foot hangar and 100,000 square feet of ramp, where planes can be parked, fueled, loaded, unloaded and boarded.
Pridgeon’s latest investment comes on top of a multimillion expansion in 2018 that included construction of ramp space and a new hangar with luxury amenities.
When the current project is complete, the flight service company – which provides fuel, maintenance, storage and other services to private planes – will have five hangars at the airport, each one able to accommodate five mid-sized aircraft “up to a Boeing Business Jet.” There’s also a 4,200-square-foot terminal outfitted for high-end clients.
Expansion is being driven by a steady increase in private jet traffic. Even with the pandemic, Corporate Air’s business nearly doubled over the past year, increasing demand for hangar space, according to Pridgeon.
He said most of the private jet travelers who use his facilities live on the barrier island. “They’re mostly John’s Island, Windsor, Moorings and Riomar residents.”
In addition to its fueling, maintenance and storage services and facilities, Corporate Air has a luxury charter division, Orchid Island Aviation.
Looking ahead, the company plans to cover the cost of a 4,000-square-foot, $2-million customs facility for the airport if the project is approved by the federal government.
The addition of a customs facility, which local lawmakers have lobbied hard for, would allow international fliers to bypass customs checks at Treasure Coast International Airport and Business Park in Fort Pierce and fly directly into Vero.
Currently, flights from out of the country bound for Vero have to land in Fort Pierce first, clear customs and then take off, fly to Vero and land a second time, an expensive, time-consuming process that costs a typical Gulfstream owner $1,500.
An average of 50 to 60 foreign flights a month to Corporate Air in Vero must clear customs at another airport, and Pridgeon, airport officials and local lawmakers believe a customs facility here will increase international traffic considerably.
“Vero Beach is a unique town. It has real quality people,” said Pridgeon, who has operated at the airport since 1987.
Vero Beach Mayor Tony Young said in November that Corporate Air’s expansion is good for Vero. “It works hand-in-hand with the fact that we want to be a place that people love to come to,” Young said.
