employment shortages in the aviation industry. Cuevas points out that having more than one flight school goes beyond what most regional airports can offer when it comes to local flight training opportunities. “We are however still seeing a gap in the skills trades area which technical training in aviation falls under.” To help fill this gap Cuevas highlights the work of the local high school, based in Mineral Wells, and its focus on STEM learning and career areas such as skilled trades and technical specializations. “The high school has a robust Career Technical Education program (CTE). They have [areas that include] a robotics team and welding. So I think that it helps to have the flight school here because we are always interested in having that conversation of what can do STEM-wise,” Cuevas offers. A MASTERPLAN REACHING NEW HEIGHTS Turning to the airport’s master plan, Cuevas highlights the direction she is moving when implementing it. “We completed our masterplan with Garver, who was the consultant on it, in 2024 and they were incredible to work with,” Cuevas relays. “They presented it to the City Council in October, and they accepted it, and now we are going to implement it. Then it goes through an approval process for the FAA.The FAA approved the airport layout plan which is kind of a sub-product from the master plan,” she adds. “The FAA signed off on it very quickly. We were told that sometimes it could take up to a year and it did not at all. So we are fortunate that it was very fast and it gives us very strong feet to stand on for the developments that we want to do,” Cuevas enthuses. The airport is also fortunate to have a considerable amount of open land which represents over 100 acres that are available for development. “Garver looked at this land and kind of zoned it like a city first; what types of hangers do we want in what areas of the airport? Do we want personal hangars 62 AVIATION VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 05, ISSUE 02
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