"Panama City airport cleared for takeoff"

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Panama City airport cleared for takeoff
Florida airport will be first authorized since 2001 terror attacks
By JIM THARPE
The Atlanta (GA) Journal-Constitution

 
The federal government has cleared Panama City, Fla., to build the first
commercial airport in the United States since the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The new Panama City-Bay County International Airport will give metro
Atlantans, broader - and potentially cheaper - air service to the Florida
Panhandle beaches where they flock each year by the hundreds of thousands.
It could be landing its first jets in two years.

"We hope to be in operation by late 2009 or early 2010," said Randy Curtis,
the airport's executive director. Construction could begin next month,
Curtis said.

The last U.S. commercial airport to be built was the Northwest Arkansas
Regional Airport, which opened near Fayetteville in late 1998.

The new Panama City airport has been vigorously opposed by some
environmentalists and many Bay County residents. Voters gave the new
facility a thumbs-down in a nonbinding referendum three years back.

The airport, however, had the support of local officials and the powerful
St. Joe Co., which donated land to build the new airport from the 800,000
acres the timber-turned-development company owns in the Panhandle.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers late last week issued the final federal
permit necessary for construction to begin on the $330 million facility,
which will be located between Florida highways 77 and 79, about 10 miles
from the nearest beaches.

The Panhandle beaches, from St. George Island and Mexico Beach in the east
to Panama City Beach, Seagrove, Destin and Ft. Walton in the west, count
metro Atlanta as the primary engine for their recent tourist and real estate
booms. Metro residents account for about 21 percent of the 4.1 million
people a year who visit just Panama City Beach. And the numbers are similar
for neighboring Walton and Okaloosa counties.

"Atlanta considers us their beach," Bob Warren, executive director of the
Bay County Tourist Development Council said when the airport was proposed.

Bay County officials argue the new airport will provide more frequent,
cheaper and safer commercial air service to the region. Runways at the
current airport, which is located on a bay, flood when hurricanes pass
nearby. And only small, regional jets use the current facility, which
translates to only about a dozen expensive flights to the area every day.

But airport opponents like Don Hodges, of nearby Lynn Haven, Fla., say the
airport is not needed and will be a burden to local taxpayers many of whom
will now have to drive much further to catch a flight. Traffic to the
current airport has actually declined in recent years, Hodges said, raising
serious questions about the need for a new facility.

"It is $300 million-plus of pure pork, and everybody with a big enough fork
is ready to dig in - St. Joe is at the head of the table," said Hodges, a
former Atlanta resident who worked for Delta Air Lines for three decades.

Airline officials, who usually hold any new market strategies close the
vest, declined specific comment when asked if the new airport would lead to
increased and cheaper beach flights for Atlantans.

Delta Air Lines spokesman Kent Landers said Delta supports development of
the new airport "as long as it is financed and funded in a way that is fair
to Delta and our customers." Landers said Delta currently operates 10 daily
flights from the airport.

"We will continue to look for opportunities to better serve our customers in
this market as the Panama City region expands," Landers said.

John Kirby, director of strategic planning and scheduling for AirTran
Airways, said AirTran has met with Panama City airport officials several
times over the years but would not even consider service because of the
current airport's runway limitations.

"Give the fact Panama City is a popular resort area, it will create more
general industry interest than you've seen before," Kirby said of the new
facility. "Certainly it's something we can now consider looking at."

AirTran currently flies into Pensacola, about 100 miles west of Panama City.

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