Already the only organization of its kind in the world to have been rated number one in customer for seven consecutive years, Wilson Air Center is looking to raise the bar on corporate aviation at Hobby Airport and in the process to become the number one fixed base operator in the nation. The brainchild of Kemmons Wilson, founder of the Holiday Inns chains, Wilson Air is turning the old Fletcher Aviation site at Hobby Airport into a state-of-the-art, full-service R&R facility for globe-trekking pilots, VIPs and celebrities. With two other locations in Memphis, Tenn. and Charlotte, N.C., the operator is certain their new Texas location will make them the most attractive option for general and corporate aviation around the globe.

Wilson Air Center is looking to take-on the corporate aviation market in Houston.

“We’re constantly upgrading our offices, hangar space and ramp space at Hobby Airport to make sure our new facility is up to par with the reputation of our other two locations,” said Matt Davis, marketing director for Wilson Air.

So far that inexhaustible ambition to stay ahead of the competition has translated into a newly renovated terminal area, a new 15-car parking lot, a state-of-the-art business center and complete hangar refurbishment to most of the operator’s 20-acre campus at Houston’s second-largest airport. A $3 million total investment.

But the improvements won’t stop there. Davis said Wilson Air Center will continue to refurbish their remaining hangars and also build a new aircraft canopy, among other projects.

For airport manager Mary Case, such a significant investment is a direct reflection of Houston’s booming economic market.

“Approximately 50 percent of our total traffic is general aviation – corporate aviation is most of that percentage,” she said. “This is due almost entirely to Houston’s reputation as a world-class, international city.”

The energy capital of the world, as Houston is otherwise known, is home to the third-largest number of Fortune 500 company headquarters in the nation, 82 foreign consular offices, 37 foreign chambers of commerce, and to a population of more than five million residents from 100 different nationalities, who speak more than 90 different languages.

Other fixed base operators at Hobby Airport have been inspired by the tremendous amount of construction going on at Wilson Air Center and have begun their own construction projects. Enterprise Jet Center, for example, has revealed they are ready to invest more than $11 million at Hobby.

“There are just a lot of things going on in Houston that Wilson Air wanted to be a part of,” said Davis in conclusion about his company’s decision to move into the energy capital of the world.

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