Jul. 20—Jack Hinkes “didn’t really get” the aviation industry when he was younger.
“When I was a kid, I thought, ‘Airplanes are expensive. This is unattainable. I can’t do this, so I’m not going to be interested in it,'” he said. “But that was a misconception.”
Jack Hinkes and his father, lifelong aviator Kenny Hinkes, now run the Albuquerque-based High Flying Hangars together. The company provides quality hangars — secure storage for aircraft — and will soon break ground on a project at Denton Enterprise Airport in Texas.
Using their combined expertise in commercial and residential development, the duo started the business in 2020 in the midst of a national hangar shortage. According to the E3 Aviation Association, the aircraft hangar shortage continues to grow annually. An increasing number of aircraft owners, limited airport expansion and construction hurdles contribute to the issue.
Coast to coast, Kenny Hinkes said, there’s an approximate 60,000 deficit of hangars. He said many planes are being stored in community hangars, which can make routine maintenance and access difficult, or left outside as aircraft manufacturing continues.
“If you can imagine buying a luxury car, like a Ferrari, for $300,000, and parking it on the curb outside, most people would just cringe,” Kenny Hinkes said.
‘I want to be in this club’
Since 2006, Jack Hinkes, the chief development officer of High Flying Hangars, has traveled with his father, who serves as CEO, to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s AirVenture event — the world’s largest air show.
Jack Hinkes said he treated it as any summer trip. It wasn’t until 2018 that he stopped to take in the event’s culture and community.
“I’m looking around and I say to my dad, ‘All of these people are pilots, at least the majority of them. This old man, this young girl, all of these people fly airplanes — I want to fly airplanes,'” Jack Hinkes recalled. “I want to be in this club. If they can do it, I can do it.”
The pair went on to buy a Cessna 172 in December 2019, a gold standard training aircraft that Jack Hinkes would get his pilot’s license in. After purchasing in California, they landed it at Albuquerque’s Double Eagle Airport. When inquiring about storing it in a private hangar, he said airport officials laughed.
The airport’s waiting list had about 65 people ahead of Jack Hinkes, and getting hangar access could take up to six years, he said. It was at this point that he questioned why they couldn’t build hangars of their own.
“What I love about this is it was born out of necessity. It’s a truly organic business,” Jack Hinkes said. “Why did we build hangars? Simply because I couldn’t get one.”
A growing company
Since the early ’80s, Kenny Hinkes has developed various properties in Albuquerque and Santa Fe as the founder of Center Street Realty. A family business, Jack Hinkes is also the company’s co-owner. When he suggested they build hangars, Kenny Hinkes said he and his son took a step back and discovered the shortage was prevalent everywhere.
High Flying Hangars has developed a nationwide plan to bring new, superior-quality infrastructure to municipal airports, according to its website.
As its first client, the company completed its first of four rows of hangars right where they couldn’t find one — Double Eagle. Jack Hinkes said the company plans to install 45 to 50 hangars at the airport, depending on sizing.
In June, High Flying Hangars was approved for a 40-year lease with Denton Enterprise, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area. The $21 million project will provide the Denton airport with 44 hangars for general and business aircraft. Construction is set for later this year, with plans to have units available in 2026.
Denton Enterprise Director Ryan Adams said High Flying Hangars will construct 110,000 square feet of hangar space. The company and airport worked for about a year on proposals and lease agreement negotiations, he said.
“The number of hangars, the size of the hangars, what they proposed in terms of their lease payments to the airport — that all factored into them being awarded the bid,” Adams said. “It worked out very well for the airport, and I know it worked out very well for them. It’s a partnership that we’re really looking forward to starting.”
Jack Hinkes said future plans for High Flying Hangars include building 100 hangars for Frederick Municipal Airport in Maryland and 170 more in Boulder City, Nevada.
More than working against the shortage, Kenny and Jack Hinkes agree that servicing and being a part of the aviation community is special.
“I’ve been an active pilot for 54 years. After my wife and kids, flying is my second love,” Kenny Hinkes said. “People that fly airplanes, people that own airplanes — they are my people. I’ve always felt an affinity to them.”
Now picking up momentum with High Flying Hangars, Jack Hinkes said the best part of working with family is that they always have each other’s best interests in mind. No matter where the company develops, he said it always looks to hire local family businesses.
Expecting the arrival of a son in a few short weeks, Jack Hinkes can only imagine one thing:
“All I can think about is I want to do all the things that I did with my dad, with my son,” he said. “And what better way to do it than this?”
