Story ID: 
Redbird Skyport Calls It Quits
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: The FBO at Texas' San Marcos Regional Airport was an experiment of a hybrid flight service provider/ flight training lab.
Word Count: 193
Redbird Skyport, one of two service providers at San Marcos (Texas) Regional Airport (HYI), located midway between San Antonio and Austin, closed its doors last week after eight years in operation. The facility was owned by parent company Redbird, which is known in the flight training sector for its affordable motion simulators and other training devices, and a flight school/simulator showroom occupied half of the 17,000-sq ft-terminal.

While Redbird’s training equipment division has seen “explosive growth,” company founder Jerry Gregoire said that since its opening in 2011 the FBO never had even a profitable quarter, let alone earned a profit. In a blog on his company website announcing the closure, he listed as factors in the FBO’s demise never realized projections of increases in traffic to the airport, turnover in the city manager’s office that failed to live up to promises made by their predecessors, and the opening of privately owned Austin Executive Airport.

Those employees who wish to remain with the company will be invited to join its simulator business, said Gregoire. The move leaves Berry Aviation as the lone FBO at HYI.