EL DORADO — A familiar face at South Arkansas Regional Airport at Goodwin Field will be taking the helm of operations.
Johnathan Estes, who has served as interim manager of the municipal airport since early June, was named the new manager. The El Dorado Airport Commission selected Estes from 35–40 candidates who applied for the position.
Estes has worked at the regional airport for nearly five years, serving as fixed base operations manager and sales manager for the airport’s car rental service. He was named interim manager after former airport manager Tim Johnson resigned in May to take another job. Johnson’s last day was June 2.
“He was Tim’s right-hand man,” Mickey Murfee, chairman of the airport commission, said of Estes. “We don’t have a position for assistant manager, but if there was one, he would have fallen into that category. … He was very involved in the day-today operations of the airport. We thought he had the qualifications we were looking for, and he knows the ropes out there.”
He said applications came in from across the country.
“There were a bunch of folks from California, Florida and parts in between,” he said. “We looked at everyone individually. Johnathan is a hometown boy, and he should be quite capable for what we want out there and has already hit the ground running.”
As interim manager, Estes worked with Southern Airways Express, the city’s Essential Air Service provider, as the commercial airline launched its full schedule of three round-trip flights per weekday between El Dorado and Dallas. The airline offers a total of 18 flights per week, including one on Saturday and two on Sunday.