Airport’s longest-serving employee to retire

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Springfield-Branson National Airport’s longest-serving employee is set to retire this week.

The airport’s operations supervisor, Steve Eggers, is retiring effective March 11. He’s worked at the airport for nearly 41 years, starting as a firefighter and aircraft fueler in 1979, according to a news release.

In his time at the airport, traffic grew to nearly 1.2 million passengers in 2019 from roughly 300,000 when he started.

Nicknamed “Mister Airport,” Eggers oversees safety and comfort for passengers, including firefighting, fueling and keeping wildlife off of the airfield. He’s also the trainer for snow removal operations, self-inspection, radio communication and airfield driving traffic, and he’s in charge of building and airfield maintenance.

Eggers’ interest in the airport started in the eighth grade, when his family moved north of the airport. He began watching planes take off and land.

“I grew up on the outside looking in,” Eggers said in the release.