Trending
MARTINSBURG -- The Altoona-Blair County Airport Authority discussed possible strategies for its future projects such as constructing additional hangars and remodeling the terminal Friday.
"Terminal remodel is one of the things that we've talked about, and there is federal money out there to do terminal remodels now," Airport Manager Tracy Plessinger said.
Authority Chairman Ben Stapelfeld Jr. said that he thought the priorities should be constructing an additional corporate hangar and stormwater management.
Plessinger explained that while stormwater doesn't affect the runways, it can cause issues on the county road that leads to the airport and that they "always have to plan for stormwater."
"I think we're going to be OK from the land development side, but I think you might need more money in the capital budget before building there," McFarland Johnson engineer Nick Barber said about constructing a corporate hangar.
Plessinger mentioned the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that includes the Airport Terminal Program, which provides about $1 billion a year over five years.
"But that's $1 billion a year spread all across the country so it's competitive," Plessinger said, adding that they would be going up against airports like Los Angeles and Chicago.
The drawback to applying for those funds is that the authority would need to have bids and designs ready to go with no guarantee that it would receive any money, Plessinger said.
Barber said that a project encompassing everything that the authority thought necessary to address would cost about $2.2 million.
"To be honest, chances of that are slim," Barber said of securing that amount.
Another part of the bill could provide airports with $295,000 a year for five years that they "could use for basically anything" but wouldn't be "enough to do the whole terminal."
"We don't need a new terminal; we just need to spruce up what we have," Plessinger said. "It needs an aesthetic spruce-up, like restrooms, it needs mechanical, like HVAC. All the HVAC stuff is 25 years old."
The authority agreed to have Barber work on ways to break down the $2.2 million of projects into smaller, more manageable pieces.
During his manager's report, Plessinger said that Contour Airlines' overall completion rate for May was 95% and that passenger numbers were up 41% from April but down 33% from May 2022. The airline carried 629 passengers out- and inbound in May.
Plessinger said he wasn't worried about government funding for the airport.
"In the past, as long as we show growth and we're moving -- obviously it's taken some time for people to adjust to the jet service to Philadelphia," Plessinger said. "It's different than what we used to do, but as you can see it's growing and our funding is good now through September of 2024."
Brian Ford, a representative with Contour Airlines, said that the company is "pleased with the overall percentage."
"Obviously, every month, they want me to try to tell them about the numbers, but I keep reminding them that 'I can tell you what the numbers are next week but they're going to go up,'" Ford said.
Revenue for the Avis car rentals were up 33% from April, Plessinger also said in his report.
Plessinger also reported that the initial repair work on the runway 12-30 project had been completed and that the final markings and groovings will be done in 25 days.
In other matters, the authority approved a new fie-year lease with the Pennsylvania State Police for a hangar at the airport.
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.