Officials at the Western Reserve Port Authority, which oversees operations of the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport, have plans to create an aviation training center at the facility in Vienna.

The center is needed to help meet increased interest and provide additional capacity for a new flight school at the airport as well as an aircraft maintenance program run by Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics.

It’s the first project to come from a development analysis / study done of the airport, said Krista Beniston, planning manager for the port authority. The building is planned to be 10,000- to 12,000-square feet to accommodate growth at the schools and or “any type of advanced aviation aeronautics training in the future,” she said.

Grant funds are being sought for the project. Randy Partika, project manager and development engineer for the port authority, said the building would cost $4 million to $4.5 million to build, but the total project, which also includes realigning sanitary and storm sewers at the airport, road construction and relocating the fuel farm, is about $9 million.

Careers in aviation, in the cockpit and in maintenance, are in high demand, and are expected to remain that way.

Joe Deramo, campus director for PIA’s Youngstown branch, said 99% percent of graduates are placed in jobs in the field within 30 days of graduating. Also, Boeing has reported that 135,000 mechanics will be needed by 2025, in part because about two-thirds of airplane mechanics are older than 60 and nearing retirement.

“And they said,” recently “we are actually 10% to 20% behind even what they were anticipating, so the job market over the next 10 years, just in North America, they are looking for 130,000-plus mechanics on the aviation maintenance side.”

Also, PIA graduates, more and more, are staying in the region after graduating from the 16-month program.

“Our big push, my big push, really, has been to keep them in this area. Prior to the pandemic and with our big expansion in 2016, 2017, we were sending about 70% of our students outside of this area … they were going to Cincinnati; they were going to Charlotte; they were going to Florida, Chicago,” Deramo said. “Now we have really flipped the script … about 70% of those students are staying in the area,” working at the local airport, Cleveland, Akron-Canton or Pittsburgh.

There are 137 students either attending PIA or the flight school. There were 115 students at PIA last year and 130 in March.

“In August, we’ll be at 150, which is capacity,” Deramo said.

Interest is similarly high for the flight school.

“I’ve been inundated with emails and phone calls from students who want to become part of the program,” said Joe Maxim, the school’s lead instructor.

The first cohort of students were to begin flying May 1. The second cohort is expected to begin ground school in June.

PIA costs about $6,600 per semester to attend, but Deramo said the state has several aviation-related grants to help offset the tuition cost in maintenance and pilot programs.

He said starting income is about $29 per hour. That does not include overtime, shift differential or sign-on bonuses.

Meanwhile, Mike Hillman, owner of JETS, the fixed-base operator at Youngstown-Warren and an instructor at the flight school, said demand for commercial pilots is expected to be around 30,000 by 2030.

It costs about $17,000 for a student to obtain a private pilot’s license, and about $100,000 to become a commercial airline pilot.

“From zero to employment, I’m sure you would have $100,000 in it, but it’s a little skewed because in our program, they are going to work for us as well,” Hillman said. “So at some point, they are going to stop spending (money) and start making it in conjunction with building hours.”

Also, Hillman has said many commercial airlines and private companies are offering starting salaries above $80,000 and $100,000 signing bonuses or paying off students’ tuition debts.