A runway 7,800 to 8,000 feet long is needed to keep Yeager Airport on track for future passenger growth, add more nonstop destinations, improve military capabilities and enhance safety, a consultant developing a master plan for the Charleston airport told members of its governing board on Wednesday.
Once the airport's new EMAS bed and safety zone is completed - expected to be sometime next fall - Yeager's runway length will be about 6,700 feet, meaning that another 1,100 to 1,300 feet of runway would have to be added to adhere to the recommendations outlined Wednesday by Matt Lee, vice president for operational planning for the Cincinnati-based aviation planning and development firm Landrum & Brown. Lee also recommended adding 1,000-foot safety overrun zones at each end of the extended runway, and observed that "the military would like to see an 8,000-foot runway" at Yeager to accommodate a wider range of aircraft.
The added runway length was based on the needs of the airport's "critical aircraft," which the Federal Aviation Administration defines as the most demanding aircraft now using the airport that makes at least 500 takeoffs and landings there annually. Lee identified Yeager's critical aircraft as the Canadair CRJ 900, a 76-seat passenger jet, which when fully loaded with passengers, fuel and baggage, operates optimally when 7,800 feet of runway is available for takeoffs and 6,600 feet is available for landings.
With no room for expansion at the end of the runway nearest Charleston, where restoration work for the collapsed safety zone got underway this week, additional runway and safety overrun space would be created by extending the north end of the runway deep into county-owned Coonskin Park.
The extended runway and the larger jets it would attract would help Yeager add new nonstop destinations, the most likely in the next six years being Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit and Orlando, all of which previously had nonstop links with Charleston, Lee said. Looking farther into the future, nonstop flights to United Airlines' hub in Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas were possibilities, according to the consultant, who said he sees passengers at Yeager seeking destinations to the south and the west more than in the northeast.
By making the Charleston airport more accommodating to larger aircraft and adding new nonstop routes, Lee said, Yeager could expect to see its passenger boarding numbers rise from the current 213,000 per year to 350,000 within 20 years.
Landrum & Brown, which helped the Charleston airport come up with the plan for restoring its collapsed safety overrun area, expects to complete its new master plan for Yeager by early next spring, according to Lee.
"This may be our only chance we get to have the airport we want," said board member Allen Tackett, the state's former adjutant general.
"This is our best opportunity we now have to get funding for the future," said Terry Sayre, Yeager's executive director. "We need to try to get as many feet of runway as we can if we are going to grow and meet the needs of the public."
In other developments during Wednesday's meeting, Sayre announced that the FAA had added about $300,000 to the $13.5 million grant it released earlier this month to pay for restoring the safety overrun area and EMAS bed that collapsed in March 2015.
Yeager Airport Police Chief Eric Johnson told board members that hiring former Charleston police officer Brian Jones, allowing him to move his department to a 12-hour shift schedule, has made it possible to have officers on duty around the clock. The board voted to approve Johnson's request to buy six AR-15 rifles, with optics and slings, for $7,532 to be used by his officers in situations where firing accuracy is needed beyond the relatively short accuracy range of handguns.
Reach Rick Steelhammer at rsteelhammer@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5169 or follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.