Projects planned at Pryor Field for growth and development

Jul. 15—TANNER — A Boeing 727 loaded to a weight of 135,000 pounds became the largest aircraft ever to land at Pryor Field Regional Airport a week ago, and the airport's new manager sees it as a sign of the facility's growing importance to area industries as it undertakes several major projects.

The airport has started marketing 85 acres in its southeastern area to the aviation industry to bring in jobs and services, it will begin next year to develop property it owns on its north side for additional hangars, and it wants to hold an air show in 2023, said Pryor Field Manager Adam Fox.

A new corporate hangar also is on the airport's timeline — for 2025 — but Fox hopes it can be fast-tracked.

"This airport is on the cusp of greatness," said Fox, 28, who has been in his position for five months. "It's about to have a big makeover with improvements."

The planned hangar development would expand the airport onto 22 acres on its north side. Nathan Fowler, airport board chairman, said they are working to develop the property into a commercial area.

"This area will consist of an aircraft ramp capable of accepting many of the larger-style freight aircraft," Fowler said. "Surrounding the ramp will be sites suitable for aircraft hangars with appropriate utilities and infrastructure in place and ready for use."

Fox said the hangars could be for a corporation or an individual and would provide another apron and taxiway for aircraft other than the apron at the airport's terminal, which sits just north of Calhoun Community College's Decatur campus in Limestone County.

"The primary focus behind the north development acreage besides the possibility of new, privately owned or authority-owned or built hangars in the future is the fact that we can separate our freight operations like larger aircrafts from our transient apron in front of the terminal building," Fox said.

There are many days each month, Fox said, that they run out of room on the airport's apron. He said they plan to bid out the work for the taxiway and apron on the north acreage in the spring of 2023. The airport will receive 90% of the funding federally, the state will pay 5%, and the airport will pay 5%.

The dollar amounts each entity will pay won't be known until the project cost is determined.

"It's going to be up in the air until we actually open the bids up," Fox said.

Fox said the airport is in a strategic location for the surrounding growth of industry and business, including nearby Mazda Toyota Manufacturing, Carpenter Technology, Polaris and Amazon facilities. He said usually there is an aviation factor that goes along with growth.

"Huntsville is the number one place to live in America and Limestone County is the fastest growing county in the state of Alabama. So, with that, obviously, there's a lot of industry looking to maybe call this area home, and we like to say in aviation that we're the industry that connects all others."

The airport's biggest need, Fox said, is to have the infrastructure such as hangars to accommodate the waiting list of individuals and businesses who want to make frequent trips to and from the airport. He said the waiting list has 91 aircraft while they currently have 141 based at the airport. The airport has 55 hangars.

"We need to expand and have more hangars built, desperately," Fox said. "Our traffic is constantly increasing. Our military operations are constantly increasing, our freight, our business aviation is constantly increasing. Even our general aviation operations are increasing as well."

Fox said there is a project planned for 2025 to build a corporate hangar beside the existing terminal. He said that there is a possibility that it could be sooner.

"We would like to build a hangar of our own so we can accommodate corporate business aviation ... your business jets, your transient folks that fly in from out of state looking to do business in the Tennessee Valley," Fox said. "There's a need for that so there's a need for us to build a large corporate hangar."

He said businesses offering engine servicing or aircraft painting are the type of aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) companies he hopes to attract to the 85-acre section of the airport and said he has already had conversations with prospects. He said the effort is a way to "create jobs."

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Aircraft weights limited

Fox said the Boeing 727 that used the airport last Friday brought freight from Mexico after stopping in Texas to clear customs. The freight was for a local company that he declined to identify, but he said the shipment shows Pryor Field's value.

"You've got an employer that employs thousands of people, and we're a big cog in that operation," he said.

Fox would eventually like for the airport's runway to be extended to handle even bigger cargo loads. Fox said aircraft are limited in the weight of their fuel and cargo at Pryor Field where the runway is 6,107 feet long and 100 feet wide with 25-foot shoulders.

"We're looking through the master plan to see what an extension would look like. We're trying to cater to a certain classification of aircrafts, your Boeing 737 and DC-9," Fox said. "Fully loaded, a DC-9 needs roughly about 8,000 feet of runway."

The Boeing 727 that delivered the freight last week is 153 feet long with a wingspan of 108 feet. A Douglas DC-9 aircraft is just over 133 feet long with a wingspan of just over 93 feet. A Boeing 737 is 130 feet long with a 113-foot wingspan.

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'Open for business'

Fowler said there is a reason for increased traffic at the airport.

"The authority has worked tirelessly to market ourselves as the 'Gateway to the Tennessee Valley.' Despite a worldwide reach, aviation is a close-knit community, and the word is out that Pryor Field is open for business," he said.

With traffic increasing, so do fuel sales.

Fox said the airport is projected to sell 260,000 gallons of fuel in 2022.

"We are on the flight path to sell 16% more than (fiscal '21) and 70% more than (fiscal '20)," Fox said.

There are other projects Fox wants to address like maintaining current infrastructure. Since he became manager in February, he has replaced the sheet metal on one side of two World War II hangars.

"We've got concrete that's original from 1941 when the airport was built, and it's never been touched at all to be refurbished. So that's some of the things we've got to look at in the next five to 10 years," he said.

In the fall the taxi-lane in front of the tenant hangars will be sealed to extend the life of the pavement and protect it from oxidation, Fox said. The project is a state project so the state will pay 75% and the airport will pay 25%.

The total cost of the project is $117,675 with the airport matching $29,419. — Air show planned

Fox is beginning to plan an air show that would have aircraft performances at the airport in the spring 2023. He is still working on the details but said it will be a family-oriented event.

Fox said the air show "is to allow the community to come to the airport to learn about the aviation industry as a whole. ... To my knowledge this is the first-ever air show at Pryor Field Regional Airport and the first air show in north Alabama in numerous years."

Fox has been the airport manager since Feb. 14 when Adam Foutz left to take a job at Auburn University Regional Airport. Fox was previously the director of El Reno Regional Airport in Oklahoma.

"It seems like I've been here two years. That's how busy I've been," Fox said. "I had a very tough decision coming back to Alabama as the airport manager at Pryor Field or take another opportunity on the private side of the aviation industry. As a former Alabama native from Dothan ... this made the decision a little easier. Coming to Pryor Field was like coming home."

He has become involved with Rotary Club, Decatur-Morgan County Chamber of Commerce and the Greater Limestone County Chamber of Commerce.

"My goal has been to spread awareness of the airport to the communities and the positive impact it has on the Tennessee Valley," he said.

—erica.smith@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2460.