In the background, airport serves as economic development tool

Details: Lance Martin; News; 05 May 2023; 1922

The resounding theme of an open house at the Halifax-Northampton Regional Airport was the behind-the-scenes role it plays in the area’s economic development efforts.

The airport has received recent attention from county commissioners who in February accepted its five-year strategic plan and addressed the airport authority’s enabling legislation to pave the way for long-term leasing that is expected to bring a commercial hangar and maintenance shop. The proposal is currently being reviewed by the state legislature.

“We still have a lot of work to do as far as the airport,” said Halifax County Board of Commissioners Chairman Vernon Bryant. “We’ve come a mighty long since the inception where it used to be at the Center for Energy Education. That’s where it all started. I just see this as being an economic development machine. I can see our corporate and business people flying in and some have already taken advantage of it. I just see us moving to the next level. We’re in a great place to be a small airport.”

Bryant said, “Thank God for the people who saw this from the beginning like David King, Calvin Potter and the former commissioner James Pierce and Bob Clark. They had the vision and the foresight to really wrap this around and move it forward in the right direction.”

Bryant said he foresees an eventual expansion of the airport. “I see Halifax County really growing and adding to the airport. I think we’re going to be able to move it to the next level.”

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Ralph Johnson, who serves as the chairman of the airport authority and was its first manager, said the airport is improving. “We’re getting ready to build a maintenance shop, we’re getting ready to add some more hangar space and we’ve had some people coming out here interested in building some more corporate hangars. It’s growing and doing a good job.”

Johnson said airports are based on the communities they serve. “If we have more businesses in the community then air traffic is going to increase and with the airport being here that helps create more businesses.”

Johnson compared the airport to an Interstate 95 exit ramp. “When you build an exit ramp like 173 which is Highway 158 — I can remember when it was just a two-lane road and mostly wooded area out there — and now you’ve got motels and gas stations, you’ve got shopping centers and all that is business. All that is because of the exit ramp. It costs money to build an exit ramp, it doesn’t make a dime but look at what it does.”

Johnson said for every dollar invested in an airport the community receives $9 in return. The airport contributes 135 jobs locally and with tax revenue the facility brings around $16 million to the community. “It does it in the background and people don’t realize what it does. You think of the business here and the paper mill — their executives come in and do their business. Those planes are coming in.”

When Vidant became ECU Health, those executives flew in. “If they have to land in Rocky Mount, why not build in Rocky Mount?” Johnson said.

The airport can handle 95 percent of the corporate jets. Ospreys come into the airport for practice. “You’ve got student pilots flying in. We don’t have instructors here, we don’t have rental planes, but that’s one of the visions I’d like to see down the road.”

Airport Manager Fred Draper said he would like to see expansion of hangars and maintenance hangars. “We’d also like to see industry set up on the other side. We think that would help the airport.”

Draper said economic development is looking for the state approving to put a road into Highway 903 to give easier access to the facility and the interstate.

Halifax County Economic Development Director Cathy Scott said one of the recent companies that decided to locate in the county flew in their team and as that happened the president of Roseburg flew in. As that meeting finished, Ed Fitts, who has invested heavily in Littleton, came in via the airport.

“There’s a lot that the airport is to our efforts from a community and economic development standpoint that the public has no reason to know,” Scott said. “The strategic plan outlined the future. The lake is a tremendous base to recruit users of the airport.”

Scott said the pending approval by the state of the long-term lease is crucial. “That makes corporate investment a little easier. You look at people who use the hangars — they pay for the hangars, they pay for it on leased property so they want to make sure that their investment — the longer term the lease the better they feel their return on investment would be.”

State Representative Michael Wray said, “The airport is very important to the Halifax, Northampton county region for our individuals learning how to fly and also we’ve got our corporate people that have hangars here that fly in and out. We have corporate jets coming in and fueling up.”

As Scott said, Wray also said the lake is a key to a healthy airport. “It’s great for economic development and it’s also great for our community to be able to bring citizens who probably wouldn’t have normally come.”

Tyus Few, a pilot and member of the Halifax County School Board, said the new airport was an adjustment to him because the old facility was only five minutes from his house.

Also a member of the airport authority, Few said, “With our strategic plan it’s going to be a really nice facility. I want to see more expansion, more hangars, more access, more facilities and maintenance, maybe buying a fuel truck and maybe a tow for the airport. It’s an ongoing process.”

TAGS: halifaxnews, halifaxcountynews, halifaxnorthamptonregionalairport, halifaxnorthamptonregionalairportauthority

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