by Molly McMillin
The Wichita Eagle
WICHITA, KAN. – Yingling Aviation, the fixed base operation at Wichita Mid-Continent Airport, has opened a Subway Café inside one of its hangars. The restaurant has glass walls so customers can view airport activity on the east runway. It is the first Subway Café franchise of its kind in Kansas.
The restaurant offers an expanded menu compared to typical Subways. It also offers a full range of catering services.
The Subway Café offers seating for up to 46 customers, and employs 15 to 20 full-time and part-time employees.
Yingling Aviation owner, Lynn Nichols, has wanted a restaurant inside the facility since 2000 when he acquired the operation.
“You could say this plan has been in the works for 14 years,” said Nichols. “It was part of the original vision we had for this business … and now it’s happening.”
Nichols’ son-in-law, Zach Theademan, serves as general manager. The restaurant is inside the hangar previously used to assemble Cessna Skycatchers, the light sport aircraft that is no longer being built by Cessna.
The Subway Café offers Subway’s standard menu of sandwiches, salads and breakfast items, as well as a larger selection of breakfast items, pastries and beverages, including espresso lattes and smoothies.
“This is an exciting development for Mid-Continent Airport,” said Victor White, Wichita Airport Authority Director of Airports. “It helps fill a void for quick food service for visiting and local general aviation and military aviation customers, as well as the thousands of employees working on the airport campus who don’t always have time on their lunch breaks to leave the airport to find a good meal.”
The Subway Café is the second business housed inside Yingling. “The Aviator’s Attic,” a pilot shop that offers pilot supplies, aviation-related gifts and apparel, also is operated at the site.
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is being published courtesy of The Wichita Eagle, which first published the article on February 27, 2014, prior to the opening of the café. The article has since been updated for publication in Midwest Flyer Magazine (Copyright 2014).
