A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

When Southern Sky Aviation <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2021-07-15/charter-provider-buys-mississippi-fbo">took over</a> the lone FBO at Mississippi’s Trent Lott International Airport (KPQL) in 2021, the U.S. and indeed much of the world was still in the midst of the global Covid pandemic.
At the time, the airport was closed due to a widening and resurfacing project on its 6,500-foot runway, so the new owners took advantage of the situation by conducting a $1 million renovation on the two-decade-old facility. “It was kind of like an old bus terminal; it had that atmosphere,” said Tim Thomas, the company’s v-p of FBO operations and general manager of the Pascagoula facility. “We made it more of an FBO. We really just revamped the entire structure here and made it look a lot more professional.”
Among the improvements was the establishment of the Sky Café in the hangar, a move that has proven so successful the company recently expanded its space from 20 seats to 45. Serving breakfast and lunch, the venue is popular not only among customers but also the local community, with Thomas having to set up a DoorDash account to handle the delivery requests.
While the $100 hamburger is a classic meme in general aviation, Sky Café‘s hungry patrons line up for Diane’s famous chicken sandwich. Though the community beyond the airport fence is charged $14 for a meal, FBO customers will only pay $8, while for active-duty military members, it’s just a buck. “We have a large military training traffic that comes in and out of here,” Thomas told AIN, adding the FBO holds a current Defense Logistics Agency fueling contract. “We are proud that they come here and eat at the café so we can fuel both the planes and the pilots.”
Also part of the initial improvements in the ownership changeover was a new fuel farm with a capacity of 20,000 gallons of jet-A and 12,000 gallons of avgas, the latter with self-service capability. Today, the FBO’s two jet fuel tankers (5,000 gallons and 3,000 gallons) and single avgas truck pump more than a half-million gallons of fuel a year.
“Three years ago when we started, they were only flowing about 180,000 gallons [annually], so we’ve made a large change for the airport,” explained Thomas, noting that business is up more than 57% over the previous year. He added that with KPQL’s location just 10 miles from one of the nation’s largest aviation fuel refineries, getting his tanks refilled even on short notice is never a problem.
The 4,800-sq-ft terminal includes a passenger lobby with complimentary refreshments including a soft-serve ice cream machine;&nbsp; pilot lounge with snooze room, eight-seat conference room, shower facilities, crew cars, and onsite car rental. The airport just repaved and repainted the FBO’s parking lot, utilizing leftover grant funds. The facility with its Avfuel-trained staff of 10 is open from 6 a.m. until 8 p.m. on weekdays and from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. on weekends with after-hours callout available.
Twenty-four-hour planeside customs clearance with advance notice was just instituted, along with the FBO obtaining international trash disposal approval. This is helping boost KPQL’s credibility as an international arrivals gateway. “Why go to a congested ramp when you can come here and get in and out a lot quicker than you could at Fort Lauderdale or New Orleans?” Thomas asked rhetorically.
The Southern Sky FBO offers 75,000 sq ft of hangar space capable of sheltering aircraft up to a Gulfstream G650. It is home to a variety of aircraft including a Gulfstream G550, a Falcon 20, Citation II, HondaJet, Beechcraft King Air 200, and a pair of helicopters.
With Pascagoula a well-known military shipbuilding hub, that industry draws traffic to KPQL in the form of traditional business aviation as well as military aviation in the form of aircraft required to test the defense systems activity on the new vessels. As well, the FBO is home to a fleet of light fish-spotting aircraft, which guide boats in the gulf to harvest fish oil for the dietary supplement producer located just off the field.
During the fishing season, Thomas noted his avgas deliveries rise to approximately one load a week, compared with just two loads for the remaining six months of the year. The casinos in nearby Biloxi are also a draw of private aviation traffic, dispatching limousines to the airport to pick up high rollers who arrive on their own aircraft. "We're closer in timing than the other airports in the area," said Thomas. "We're about 10 minutes faster to get there because there is one red light between us and the casinos."
While much of the Gulf Coast region is susceptible to flooding, Thomas points out that KPQL sits 17 feet above flood stage, leaving it operational when other airports may be underwater due to storm surges.
The airport recently received approval for a $7 million development project, which will expand its south ramp space as well as add another taxiway connector that will allow for one connector in each direction of traffic between the taxiway and ramp. "That will really help us on safety aspects and increased operations," said Thomas. A similar expansion is planned for the airport's north ramp, along with the eventual lengthening of the runway to 8,200 feet.
Among the FBO’s occasional customers is former Senate majority leader Trent Lott (R-Mississippi), who has quipped on arrival “It’s good to be back at my airport.”
Earlier this year Southern Sky expanded with the opening of an FBO at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (KECP) in Panama City, Florida. Thomas joked that when targeting new locations for the company, it's "nowhere that requires deicing."

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