[Archive Home][Date Prev][Date Next][Index]
Airport News, "Portsmouth, Virginia looks into study to buy an airport"
Tuesday, November 2, 1999
Portsmouth looks into study to buy an airport
BY LOU MISSELHORN, The Virginian-Pilot
CHESAPEAKE -- In an effort to boost economic development, the city of
Portsmouth is exploring the possibility of buying the privately owned
Hampton Roads Airport that straddles the Chesapeake and Suffolk line.
The Virginia Aviation Board has agreed to pay Portsmouth $40,000 toward a
$50,000 feasibility study to appraise the airport and determine its economic
benefits to the city.
The Portsmouth City Council could order the study as early as Nov. 23,
Deputy City Manager H. Timothy Little said.
Portsmouth council members say the airport's proximity to Interstate 664 and
the limited open space within the city make owning the airport an attractive
offer.
City Council member Tommy Benn said the city-run airport could lure more
businesses to the Airline Boulevard corridor and to the proposed corporate
center off Victory Boulevard.
If the city does decide to buy the airport, the Virginia Department of
Aviation and the Federal Aviation Administration would pay 98 percent of the
cost for the land and to expand the runways to lure corporate airplanes.
``It may be a good fit,'' Little said. ``We investigate a lot of different
things to improve ourselves, but we're just in the preliminary stages.
That's why we want to do the study.''
Benn, a pilot who has been the city's liaison to the state aviation board,
said he would like the study to be complete by January.
Hampton Roads Airport has been owned by Gateway Limited Liability Corp.
since 1996. The 897.6-acre property is assessed for tax purposes at $7.3
million.
Chesapeake Planning Director Brent R. Nielson said airport manager Jim
Thorpe at one time considered putting in an industrial park and removing one
of the airport's runways, but nothing came of those plans.
Over the summer, Thorpe approached Portsmouth officials about becoming a
partner, Benn said. By August, Benn said, Thorpe had asked if the city
wanted to buy it.
Benn said the airport has two runways, more than a half-dozen businesses and
more than 100 hangars.
State records show Hampton Roads Airport is the most-used airport in
southeastern Virginia except for Norfolk International Airport, drawing an
estimated 56,887 arrivals and departures in 1998.
In comparison, Chesapeake Regional Airport drew 22,596 operations and
Suffolk Municipal Airport drew 14,745, according to estimates calculated by
the Virginia Department of Aviation.
The possibility of the city acquiring the airport is good news because it
would mean the facility would remain an airport and take air traffic
pressure from Norfolk International Airport, said James L. Bland, the
state's manager of the Airport Services Division.
``We would like to see it in the public ownership,'' Bland said. ``It better
supports its longevity.''
*****************************************
California Aviation Coalition: Airport News List E-mail Commands
To subscribe to the Airport News List, send an email, from the email account you wish to receive your posts on, addressed to listserv@californiaaviation.org and place the following in the first line of the body of the message:
Subscribe airport YourFirstName YourLastName YourJobTitle YourAirport/Company
To unsubscribe from the Airport News List, send an email, from the email account you have been receiving your posts on, addressed to listserv@californiaaviation.org and place the following in the first line of the body of the message:
Unsubscribe airport YourFirstName YourLastName
If you have problems either subscribing or unsubscribing, email stepheni@cwnet.com