Podcast: Airfield Of Dreams—How A Small Airport Got Commercial Service

Gulf Shores International Airport Director Jesse Fosnaugh tells the story of building a terminal from scratch and gaining commercial airline service.

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Karen Walker: Hello everyone and thank you for joining us for Window Seat, our Aviation Week air transport podcast. I'm ATW and Aviation Week Network air transport editor-in-chief Karen Walker, and I am delighted to welcome you on board. Now, our very special guest this week has quite a story to tell. I'm thrilled to be joined by Jesse Fosnaugh, the director at Gulf Shores Airport. Jesse, welcome.

Now, if you're asking, “Say that airport again?” That's okay, because that's really part of this amazing story. Gulf Shores is a small city in Alabama that sits just a couple of miles from a 32-mile stretch of pristine white beaches that span Alabama's coastline and blend into those of Florida. Gulf Shores Airport was initially a U.S. Navy aviation training site for the nearby Pensacola Naval Air Station. Over time, the property was transferred to the state of Alabama and renamed Jack Edwards Airport before it was purchased in 1983 by Gulf Shores city, which turned into a general aviation airport. It still remained a little off the beaten track until it was fast-tracked for the installation of an air traffic control tower under an FAA reauthorization program.

By 2022, the airport had obtained its operating certificate, but still had no commercial airline service. But that changed again in May this year when Las Vegas-based leisure carrier Allegiant Air launched nonstop flights to Gulf Shores from cities that included Belleville, Ill., Bentonville, Ark., Cincinnati, Ohio, Houston, Texas, Kansas City, Mo., and Knoxville, Tenn. And in July, Allegiant, which operates all nonstop, point-to-point services with a fleet of Airbus A319s, A320s and Boeing 737 MAXs announced it would also start service to Gulf Shores from Appleton, Wis., and Des Moines, Iowa, in the beginning of October, as well as from Nashville, Tenn., from Nov. 21.

In an article in the current edition of ATW magazine, I call this an aviation Field of Dreams tale. Jesse, his team and the people at Gulf Shores have built the airport, quite literally in the case of the terminal, so that an airline could come. So, Jesse, welcome again and let's kick off with how things are going now that Allegiant has been operating at Gulf Shores for a few months and what's it like working with Allegiant?

Jesse Fosnaugh: Working, working with Allegiant has been an excellent adventure, so to speak. We've been really impressed with the reception that the community has had as well as how the visitation from these markets have been. You never really know when you start these types of ventures what to expect. You don't know if it's going to be received and how it'll be received, and frankly, how your load factors will be. But right out of the gate here this summer, we've been very pleased. In fact, so much through the month of August, since May 21 through the end of August, we've had over 41,000 passengers fly through our facility. So, it's been quite a turnout.

Karen Walker: From nothing to that so quickly, quite an achievement. Can I ask you, what was the hardest thing, the most difficult challenge, if you like, to address in terms of making this airport a commercial airline opportunity?

Jesse Fosnaugh: So, I would say that the most difficult thing was probably making the changes to the terminal. Once we found out that it would be a narrowbody aircraft like Allegiant with 186 seats traveling to the terminal so frequently and so successfully, when the terminal was built, it was built with a little bit of a conservative mindset, which is good, good financially, and what we expected was maybe some 50-seat regional jets to go a couple days a week to Atlanta or maybe a major hub, something like that. That's kind of what we expected, but it ended up being we had much more than that. The analogy of we knew we were having a baby, but we didn't expect twins was something we often said here. We didn't expect that level of passenger volume. That really changed the way that the airport needs to operate. So, our curbside access had to get bigger. Our bag claim area had to get a baggage conveyor system in to handle many more bags at one time. And then obviously our gate area, we had to make our gate area bigger. We were able to do this with the existing facility, but it was basically drawing with a dry erase marker on drawings that had already been issued for construction. So, you can imagine what that was like.

Karen Walker: Yeah, I'm sure. I'm sure our audience will be very interested in some of the details here. Can you just tell us a little bit of some of the key stats, the operating days, how many airliners you can manage at a single time, and also a little bit about, I assume you have TSA security screening, so tell us a bit about that.

Jesse Fosnaugh: Yes, so our terminal is really a—it has two gate doors in the gate area, but really we're really limited by the way that Allegiant flies, at least, to the one flight at a time being on the ramp. We do have four parking positions on the ramp, so we can handle four aircraft on the ramp at one given time. However, we can't handle that many at one time. So that is probably the biggest challenge. We've estimated that our terminal can handle about 125,000 enplaned passengers a year based on the way Allegiant flies. We already expect this year to be over 40,000. So, you can look at that and go, okay, well, you're tracking the right way. We have enough throughput to be able to handle it from our TSA screening checkpoint. We have one TSA screening checkpoint lane, and those are staffed by some full-time people from TSA and they've also pulled from Mobile and Pensacola to staff that. But we've estimated around 65 staff have been added for this operation, and that includes TSA, Enterprise, the ground handler, Trego Dugan, of course, my staff, I always say my staff had to grow by 300%. We went from three to nine people in my office. So, it's really interesting to see how it all pulls together. But the metrics have been very successful, and as far as load factor goes, our flights have been on average 70% load factor. So, we're seeing about 118 people on these flights on any given flight, which is really impressive.

Karen Walker: Excellent. My guess is that those nine staff people that you talked about are very multitask sorts of people, yes?

Jesse Fosnaugh: Yes, absolutely. I always wanted a very lean and nimble operation. I've always believed in that in my airports that I've worked at in the past, that we often, many times when you get in these situations that you don't start with something fresh, you kind of have a little bit of a bloated structure. But we said, let's build this Swiss Army knife concept and allow them to do multiple things. So, they're doing safety, security, I mean custodial duties to some extent, and then also the badging and the fingerprinting. We really wanted to expand their skillsets and so we could get the most out of those staff, enrich them as well, enrich their opportunities and exposure to jobs, and it's really proved to be a really winning concept.

Karen Walker: Excellent. I suspect they had some of the most interesting jobs in the airport industry. How did you come to this world, Jesse, what was your background?

Jesse Fosnaugh: So my journey's been a bit of an interesting one. I actually started my career, I got my driver's license after I got my pilot's license, so I was flying before I was driving. It wasn't until my junior year of college in Michigan that I discovered that you could actually do airport management. That was something that was really new to me. I didn't really know, hey, you could do this as a career, this is a thing. And so I was fortunate enough to get my first internship at Grand Rapids, Michigan at GRR, Gerald R. Ford Airport, and then my first job outside of the state moved to Portland, Maine, and in Portland, Maine, I did airport operations and noise abatement functions. And my big move came when my airport director there said, “Jesse, do you want to go start an airport in Branson, Missouri?” And I said, “That sounds great. Can you tell me where Branson is?” And I have no idea at all where was, I knew about St. Louis. I knew about Kansas City. I somewhat even knew about Springfield, Missouri, but I never heard of Branson. And it's a small town about two miles from the state line of Arkansas, the airport is. And that's what really gave me, I think, the most exposure to different parts of airport management because we quite literally had to build an airport from the ground up.

In that case, we topped off mountains and filled in valleys and had to create the runway and the terminal. And after a succession of roles there, moving up through airport operations into the business side of everything, I had a vacation down here in Gulf Shores. One time I drove down here with our friends from church, and I remember it stuck out to me because we got to, we're driving down Highway 59 here, right by the airport, and I said, “Guys, there's an airport here?” I mean, that is really what I said to the people in our car. I said, “Guys, there's an airport here?” And they said, yeah, we checked, but there's no air service. But they're working on it. And fast forward five years later, I see a position become open that says, airport director needed at Gulf Shores, and I threw my hat into the ring immediately, and I really, really wanted to be part of this project, part of this community, not just because it's a fantastic place to live, but because I love furthering aviation. I love the challenge, and I knew it was something that we could tackle, being that the runway was already built, it was already much easier than Branson, I say sometimes. So that's how I came into this, fell into this.

Karen Walker: Yes. Sounds like the perfect match.

Jesse Fosnaugh: Yes, absolutely.

Karen Walker: You've just mentioned that you first saw Gulf Shores as you went on a trip there, and I mentioned about the beaches. Tell us a little bit more about Gulf Shores. What's attracting people there?

Jesse Fosnaugh: So, Gulf Shores and Orange Beach and Fort Morgan are really, I would say, like a hidden gem, and I use that word because many people do not associate beaches with Alabama. It's just not something that comes to mind. People think Florida, they know beaches there. They think of the Bahamas, they think of beaches there and the Caribbean destinations, but it never really strikes them as Alabama has beaches, but we have wonderful sugar-white sand beaches here. The blue waters, the aqua green-blue waters that you can expect along these beaches is beautiful. But really what sets us apart, I believe more than this is that it's a small town kind of feel. We haven't overdeveloped down here. It's become a very family-centric destination. I think America and the world really sometimes is looking for a destination where you can bring your kids to the beach, you can bring your kids to the beach, you can bring your kids to go do things. There's destination activities like biking, kayaking, boat rentals, fishing. Some of the best fishing in the United States is right here along this coast and this ecotourism kind of thing. There's just so much to do here that spans a big breadth of activities. I think people are tired of driving. I think people are tired of driving to get here, and we've unlocked a really great destination here.

Karen Walker: That sounds great, Jesse. I know that Allegiant is, they really do their homework. They really get the data when they're looking at a destination. They study it very carefully. And I'm sure that they studied Gulf Shores closely before making this commitment and could see the opportunity there, if for nothing else the sorts of things that you've just been describing. It's interesting when you look at their network and then look at the cities that they've now got linked to Gulf Shores, quite a few of them are sort of, are you getting that effect a little bit like a mini-snowbird effect for that people coming from the sort of colder regions and now can get nonstop to Gulf Shores?

Jesse Fosnaugh: Yes. We are seeing a very distinct development of routes here that Allegiant is doing. Really many of their routes had been bases. If you take a look at Allegiant's crew base network where they have their crew bases, many of the destinations we had in this first round—Knoxville and think places like that were already crew bases. So, they were able to do these inside turns. But once we expanded to the fall where they're doing Appleton, Wis., and Des Moines, Iowa, we believe that is definitely an approach to try to get these snowbirds here. And we've already seen that the visitation on these initial routes, I think the inaugural flight from Appleton, Wis., has about 130 people on it, and that's Oct. 2. So, you're looking at these things and going, my goodness, there's a lot of people that want to come from here. And just yesterday I was approached by someone at a Chamber of Commerce meeting, and she actually organizes snowbird meeting groups here in Gulf Shores, and she was over the moon.

She said, “Jesse, would you like me to speak? Would you be able to speak at this snowbird meeting we have for people from Appleton in Green Bay?” And I said, absolutely. And then when you find out that these folks are a couple hundred people strong, you have to remember, these people have families, and when they come down here and visit, now their kids can come visit them three or four times in the winter. So, it's oftentimes that these snowbird routes become some of the most successful, even though it may seem kind of peculiar when you look at it on a route map.

Karen Walker: Right, absolutely. And you must be very excited about these new routes coming in the fall. And Nashville, obviously everyone does know where Nashville is, and it's famous, so that must be very exciting.

Jesse Fosnaugh: Absolutely. I mean, that was the fall announcements. The two were made for Des Moines and Appleton on May 21. So those were always on the books. But when we announced Nashville in July, I will say that got people really excited because we believe that's a two-way market, more than just one way. It's a difficult drive to begin with, but Nashville hits home for a lot of people. I mean, it hits a nerve with, as far as the attraction for country music, Broadway Street, the mountains, the Smoky Mountains near there, there's a little bit of everything for everyone there. And so, we think that's going to be a great outbound destination as well. And we're marketing it as such, and we think it'd be very successful.

Karen Walker: Yeah, I can see that great connectivity subtly that you've been giving the people of the Gulf Shores area. Are you open to other airlines?

Jesse Fosnaugh: So, we are absolutely open to other airlines coming and serving the market. We do know that our terminal will be a challenge for growth in a big way. So, we have to be very calculated in our growth. But absolutely, the door is still open to other airlines, but I still embrace the value of, to make sure that you're courting the girl you're dating, and right now, Allegiant's the girl we're dating. So, we're definitely want to make sure we're doing everything we can to make that relationship go well. And Allegiant does such a fantastic job with that because of the way they invest in their community. It really is, I mean, it's not just a soundbite, but they really do get on a granular level, their airport affairs teams and their network planning teams, they want to get to know about how the city operates, what is there actually to do. They'll take time and go do the things that the visitors would do. And so, they form these really strong relationships. But on that note, it doesn't mean that we're averse to other airlines operating here. We just want to make sure we embrace the gift that we have, too.

Karen Walker: Yeah, Allegiant's very smart, very committed. And you're right, it's always a good advice to make your date happy. Can you just talk a little bit about concessions? Again, it's very new, the terminal, but I think you've got a little bit of a celebrity there right now, haven't you? Operating a concession?

Jesse Fosnaugh: Yeah. So we have a very neat concessions concept here. We of course, have offered some abatement of landing fees for Allegiant, which has been normal, and the FAA allows for that. But we really knew that concessions were going to be an important part of our operations. So, what we did is we had arrangements made to have LuLu's, so Lucy Buffett, who's the sister of Jimmy Buffett, singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett, to open a grab and go restaurant. So, it's Grab and Go Restaurant by Lucy Buffett, and that is open in our gate area as of July 30. And people just love it. But we had originally had vending machines there, and we had Snicker bars and bottled water. And when LuLu's came into town, they started offering all of their souvenirs from the shop, a much bigger food offering for wraps and sandwiches and some of the things they're serving in their restaurant.

So immediately people resonated with that because they went to LuLu's on their vacation while they were here. It's a very big staple here in the community. And then to see that when you fly back out brings a smile across people's faces. It's a familiar product and it allows you to stay on vacation just a little bit longer, right? Keep that vacation feel, that vacation vibe just a little bit longer. But that was a big add for us. But we also have arrangements with Enterprise and Alamo Rental Car, Uber, Lyft, and Turo for ground transportation. So, we have a very unique model that also builds airport revenue but provides a great product for our customers.

Karen Walker: Very nice. And a nice local touch there. What would be your one piece of advice to other small cities that want to gain commercial airline service for the first time? Do you have a key piece of advice?

Jesse Fosnaugh: So, I believe the best key piece of advice I can give to another airport aspiring for this, would be to invest in the relationship with the airline and be consistent with the airlines, and particularly Allegiant. I mean, it took years. It took years to get Allegiant in here, and we had kind of continued beating the drum. And not to get discouraged. Not to get discouraged, but when you believe in your destination and your destination believes in itself, sometimes it sells itself, right? When you provide the data in front of airlines and you go, listen, guys, you're missing a great opportunity here. This is why this is great, and here's how you can make money. It's a compelling thing. So, I know that's not one piece of advice, but I would say to be consistent and to invest in the relationship with the airline.

Karen Walker: Excellent. Good advice. And what are your aspirations now for 2026 and beyond?

Jesse Fosnaugh: Oh, goodness, aspirations. So, this air service has been just—the community loves it, right? The community loves it; the visitors love it. It's easy to get off the plane, easy to get onto under your destination. I see the net vision continuing to continue to value the convenience, but really now we're looking at, we're actually doing a terminal expansion study. So, when I had spoke earlier about the need to grow, we're already looking at a way that we can make it so multiple aircraft can be on the ground at the same time. And that study is underway currently. And with that, we believe that we can facilitate more passengers and really increase the throughput through our terminal. This is all about economic development, and if we can continue to become an economic driver in the community, I'm going to take every opportunity we can to do that.

Some people say, Jesse, you should hit the brakes or slow down, or we didn't have to do this all in a day. I've heard many things, but I frankly love challenging the status quo. And if you do what you've always done, you're going to get what you always got. And so, I think it's just time to continue putting your foot on the gas, and that's what I want to continue to bring. And I think 2026 holds some great things for us. We may not be breaking ground, but we'll certainly be putting the path forward to do so in the future.

Karen Walker: Jesse, having the privilege of talking to you a couple of times, you do not strike me as a brakes-on person. I'm sure you're going to keep the gas on and keep pushing.

Jesse Fosnaugh: Yeah, it's sometimes to a fault. I'll be honest. Sometimes I'll be sitting down talking to my wife or my family, and I'll be in the room, but I won't be in the room. I'll be in the room, but I'll be going, oh man, we need to do X, Y, Z at the airport. And sometimes it can make those things a challenge, but I'll be honest, I'm fully supported by my family. I feel supported by the community and really just great to be here.

Karen Walker: Well, Jesse, you certainly sound like you are enjoying it. You're having fun, and that's a great thing to have in anybody's line of work. So, thank you again for joining me today. It truly is a great story. I give you and Gulf Shores my congratulations and very best wishes for the future. To our listeners, remember to read the ATW article about Gulf Shores Airport on our aviationweek.com website. Thank you to our producer Cory Hitt, and of course, a huge thank you to our listeners. Make sure you don't miss us each week by subscribing to Window Seat on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen. This is Karen Walker disembarking from Window Seat.