Story ID: 
Missouri FBO Alpha Air Calls it Quits
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: Missouri’s Joplin Regional Airport has been reduced to a single FBO with the shuttering of Alpha Air Center.
Word Count: 198
Missouri’s Joplin Regional Airport has been reduced to a single FBO with the shuttering of Alpha Air Center, which had been in operation for nearly a decade. Alpha Air occupied 6,000 sq ft of the airport’s 20,000-sq-ft general aviation terminal (GAT), which also houses a small aviation museum, Civil Air Patrol offices, and community event room. The GAT facility includes a passenger lobby, pilot lounge with snooze room, kitchen, conference room, and coffee bar.

Alpha will continue to operate its 12,000- and 6,000-sq-ft hangars, which are not part of the FBO leasehold. Alpha’s Part 145 aircraft maintenance operation closed as well, while the status of its flight school was undetermined at press time, as AIN's attempts to reach company ownership were unsuccessful.

According to airport manager Steve Stockham, the company still had approximately three years left on its FBO lease and the airport now plans to issue a request for proposal for the property within the next two months. The closure means Mizzou Aviation, which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year, will handle all general aviation traffic and airline fueling on the field, which in a typical year sees 25,000 to 30,000 operations.