Native-owned Flintco wrapping up airport project

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – The businesses typically associated with the Memphis International Airport are FedEx and Delta Airlines, but another company is leaving an indelible imprint on the major airport.

Flintco Cos. Inc. is wrapping up completion on the airport’s $55 million air traffic control tower and last week the contractor was awarded a $89.5 million contract for a seven-story ground transportation center.

The facility will house long-term parking and rental car operations.

Kevin Moyes, Flintco’s Memphis division president, told The Memphis Daily News that the company “feels fortunate” to associated with a major economic engine like the airport. The airport provides an impact of $28.6 billion annually and accounts for one in three local jobs.

Flintco is a Native American-owned business, based out of Tulsa, Okla., and it’s contract meets the airport authority’s disadvantaged business enterprise requirements – meaning the inclusion of minority- and women-owned businesses for subcontracts.

Moyes said construction of the ground transportation center will create more than 300 jobs in the short term.

“Certainly for Flintco, it’s a great project to have,” Moyes said. “It’s going to be a high-visibility project, and a project that will literally impact our community in multiple ways.”

Construction on the tower is expected to be completed next summer and then the facility will be handed over to the Federal Aviation Administration, which will install the tower’s radar equipment and systems. Once the new tower is operational, about a year later, Flintco will demolish the old tower.