“This place reminds people of the TV show Wings,” said Genevieve “Gigi” Hazle, speaking about the APP Jet Center at St. Lucie International Airport in Fort Pierce, Fla. Hazle was the assistant manager at the facility when AIN visited the Florida FBO early last month, but has since been promoted to general manager at APP Jet Center in Hayward, Calif. APP, which is short for Airport Property Partners, also owns FBOs in Manassas, Va., and Sarasota, Fla.
The comparison of the Fort Pierce facility to the TV series that ran from 1990 to 1997 is quite obvious from the moment one steps inside the lobby, which is occupied mostly by an FBO-owned and -run restaurant–one featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal–that serves breakfast and lunch daily from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s the mix of people–pilots, local restaurant patrons, front-desk CSRs, linemen, a maintenance man whose personality strikes the same chord as his TV show equivalent “Lowell”–and a cozy place to hang out that makes it the real-life version of Wings.
More In FBOs
