'It's needed': Akron-Canton Airport to build new hangar for private, corporate clients
A $2 million grant to Akron-Canton Airport will help fund a much-needed new hangar at the Green airport in 2024 or 2025, an airport official said Thursday.
Lisa Dalpiaz, vice president of air service and business development for the airport, said the Ohio Department of Natural Resources grant will add to existing hangar capacity, which is currently filled to the gills.
"Hangar space in general is hard to come by," Dalpiaz said. "It's needed."
In September, Castle Aviation began a hangar project that will help house and service its expanding inventory of planes.
Airport President and CEO Ren Camacho said in prepared remarks that the project with ODNR will spark development at the airport.
“We foresee this project as being a catalyst to the West Side Development Area," Camacho said.
Hangar to help add jobs, revenue at Akron-Canton
The grant, announced by the airport and ODNR last week, comes from the department's Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization Program. The program finances reclamation projects in areas where coal mines have been abandoned.
ODNR was recognized in September for its reclamation efforts, receiving a national award from the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement for a Jefferson County project.
Dalpiaz said the hangar will provide a needed amenity for private and corporate clients.
The structure is anticipated to be 10,000 to 12,000 square feet when completed.
"With the new hangar, we'll be able to (generate) new revenue, and creating that space will enable us to create some new airfield jobs," she said.
Dalpiaz said the 2,700-acre airfield has occasionally experienced small sinkholes on its property likely caused by abandoned mines.
"This has not impacted our runways at all," she said.
ODNR maps show a cluster of old mines northeast of the airport east of I-77 near the Summit-Stark border.
More: Sinkhole closes section of Wise Road in Green near Dick Goddard Dog Park
More: What lies beneath: Abandoned coal mines cause scramble to reinforce I-77 stretch
Akron-Canton continues post-pandemic rebound
Dalpiaz said the airport continues to rebound from passenger lows set during the pandemic, when fewer than 300,000 passengers went through the gates.
"We're on the up and up," she said last week. "…We're looking at around 680,000 passengers this year."
On Nov. 15, Breeze Airways added a non-stop route to Raleigh-Durham that connects to New Orleans, she said.
"It's a 'Breeze-through' — a no-plane-change to New Orleans," she said. "Same gate and plane. That will will be year-round."
The Raleigh-Durham flight starts in February.
Leave a message for Alan Ashworth at 330-996-3859 or email him at aashworth@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @newsalanbeaconj.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Akron-Canton Airport lands $2 million federal grant for new hangar
