South Alabama’s building reputation as an aerospace hub isn't just about building and maintaining large jet aircraft. There is also a steadily increasing demand for aviation maintenance and pilot training along the Gulf Coast, driven by the nationwide shortage of qualified personnel in recent years.

Emerging flight schools such as Aeropro at Jack Edwards National Airport in Gulf Shores are in a prime position to fill that gap.

"We have good year-round flying weather and relatively uncongested airspace, which is a great combination for training," said Chris Dunn, Aeropro's senior project manager and certified flight instructor.

"The toughest part is scrambling to meet the demand, not only from those wanting to learn to fly, but for flight instructors and aircraft mechanics who are also in short supply," Dunn added.

A big part of that added demand stems from regional airlines who require an FAA-mandated minimum of 1,500 flight hours before a pilot can be considered for employment. The fastest way to build that time is for pilots to instruct other pilots. Some of these instructors can often satisfy that requirement going from zero-time to 1500 hours in as little as 18 months, making it difficult to find long-term employees and have enough instructors on hand to meet the building demand.

Aeropro is up for the task with plans to expand its fleet of training aircraft as well as its aircraft repair and maintenance staff that currently occupies a 17,000 square foot hangar at Jack Edwards National Airport in Gulf Shores.

"Pilots need airplanes and airplanes occasionally break," said Joe Barton, Aeropro director of maintenance. "There's more and more traffic coming into Gulf Shores and all those planes need to be maintained and repaired and that will keep us busy around here for quite a while," Barton added.

That busy forecast is backed up by expansion plans at the airport in the not-too-distant future. According to the Gulf Shores Airport Authority, the process is already underway to build a control tower to handle the busy facility. The tower is expected to be completed by the end of 2020. In addition to the tower comes plans for a passenger terminal and parking lot, leading the way to possible airline passenger service into Gulf Shores.

With airport expansion comes economic growth and more jobs coming to south Baldwin County. “We’ve been looking to hire more flight instructors and aircraft mechanics and I don’t see the demand slowing down anytime soon, both here and across the country,” said Dunn.