Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport’s newly hired business manager resigns
MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport’s newly hired business-development manager has resigned to accept another employment offer.
Jonathan “Jack” Brossart, who participated in an exit interview Thursday, began working for the airport about five weeks ago after the Eastern West Virginia Regional Airport Authority extended a conditional employment offer in November.
“This was a personal choice he made in order to take another position, another employment offer,” airport Manager Neil Doran said Thursday. “He’s a talented guy, and his skills are in demand. I wish him well.”
Brossart’s position was created to help the airport achieve the goals of the airfield’s five-year business plan.
Berkeley County (W.Va.) Council Vice President Dan Dulyea said Thursday that he hopes the job will be filled soon.
Brossart, of Mount Airy, Md., was among 34 applicants for the job, and Dulyea agreed Thursday that the airport authority potentially could revisit the list of candidates that it compiled last year to try to fill the position.
Part of the business plan includes pursuing investment and development of land at the airport’s John D. Rockefeller IV Science and Technology Center south of Novak Drive.
By 2022, the airport’s mission is to become a regional general-aviation airport and help drive economic growth in the region by developing a domestic commercial air-cargo hub while also providing cost-competitive and expanded general-aviation services and facilities.
The West Virginia Air National Guard’s 167th Airlift Wing, which employs hundreds of military and civilian full-time employees, currently is Shepherd Field’s largest driver of employment.
Altogether, the airport generated more than $220 million in economic output in 2017, and was responsible, directly or indirectly, for more than 1,600 jobs, a consulting firm has found.
The airport’s runway is 8,815 feet long and has a weight-bearing capacity that makes it capable of launching and landing a variety of large military and civilian aircraft, according to the airport’s information guide.
