Plans to Soar Beyond Its Small-Town Status

After 18 Years Without Commercial Service, an Urban Planner Turned Airport Chief is Betting that Infrastructure Investment and Strategic Partnerships Will Transform a Former World War II Airfield into New Mexico’s Next Aerospace Hub.

Three runways stretch across 2,193 acres of New Mexico desert, their concrete ribbons catching the morning sun that shines here 310 days a year. Built hastily in 1942 as America prepared for war, Las Cruces International Airport is transitioning from its military past to an ambitious commercial future. After 18 years without scheduled passenger service, the airport welcomed back commercial flights in January 2023, marking the beginning of what Airport Director Andy Hume calls a new chapter.

“Our airport was built in 1942-43 as part of the buildup for World War II, and that’s why it has three runways basically to take advantage of all possible wind directions,” says Hume, who oversees the facility that transitioned from military to civilian control in 1955. The city consolidated its aviation operations here in the mid-1960s, closing two other local airfields. “We’ve actually had commercial service on and off since the late 1940s.”

Today, Advanced Air operates seven weekly flights between Las Cruces and Albuquerque using eight-passenger King Air aircraft. The service, subsidized through New Mexico’s Rural Air Service Development program, is just the beginning of Hume’s vision. “Our goal is to expand further commercial service. That’s one of the things we’ve identified in our master plan update,” he explains. The recently adopted plan, developed over three years with FAA guidance, positions the airport for federal funding opportunities while outlining strategies for growth in aerospace, unmanned aerial systems, and expanded commercial aviation.

FBOs, Flight Schools, and Medical Flights

Las Cruces International Airport pulses with activity far beyond its scheduled commercial service. General aviation dominates the field, anchored by Frost Aviation, a flight school that has trained pilots for over three decades. “They have students from not just New Mexico, but from Texas, and actually students who come internationally to our flight schools,” Hume notes. “They’re very well known. They’ve been doing flight training for over 30 years.”

The airport hosts two fixed-base operators providing essential services. Southwest Aviation has operated on the field for 50 years, while Francis Aviation, established here a decade ago, holds the government fueling contract. Frost Aviation rounds out the fueling options with self-serve pumps that have transformed traffic patterns. “When Frost Aviation put in their self-serve tank, that really changed the dynamic here,” Hume explains. “A lot of folks who never came through here, now that we have the self-serve option, we see a lot of aircraft that we’ve never seen before.”

Post-COVID operations reveal a striking shift in aircraft mix. While military traffic has returned to pre-pandemic levels, medical evacuation flights have surged dramatically. “Prior to COVID, we had a medevac company that operated out of here with a couple of helicopters,” Hume says. Air Methods maintains that helicopter base, but fixed-wing medical traffic tells the bigger story. “What we’ve seen particularly during COVID and post-COVID is a lot of fixed-wing airplanes coming and going out of here on a daily basis, bringing patients to Las Cruces area hospitals. We probably average about six medevacs a day.”

Infrastructure Assets and Commercial Aviation Challenges

Las Cruces International Airport possesses infrastructure that rivals facilities serving much larger communities. The longest runway stretches 7,506 feet, capable of handling regional jets and even Boeing 737s that occasionally land carrying college football teams. More significantly, the airport features an instrument landing system rare among airports its size. “We have ILS, which most airports our size don’t have,” Hume emphasizes. “We can handle CRJs and things like that. We have the localizer and glide slope systems.”

Military aircraft arrive almost daily to practice instrument approaches, taking advantage of equipment that sets Las Cruces apart. “The NMSU football team, their charter flies in. We can handle charter service of that type as well,” Hume says. Sun Country Airlines and Allegiant Air have landed Airbus A320s and Boeing 737-800s here, proving the runway’s capability. In December 2022, three Sun Country 737s sat on the tarmac simultaneously after transporting the New Mexico State Aggies from a bowl game.

Yet despite these advantages, terminal limitations throttle commercial growth. The current facility cannot accommodate Transportation Security Administration requirements for larger aircraft. “Because of the size of our terminal, we have an eight-passenger King Air that flies our service. We could fly a larger aircraft, a 15-passenger or something like that, but that’s really the limiting factor,” Hume explains.

Operating without an air traffic control tower actually benefits current operations. “It allows a little bit more freedom of flight,” Hume notes. “The pilots very easily talk with each other and communicate amongst themselves. If I need to go out and do an inspection, I communicate with the pilots from the ground as well.”

An Urban Planner’s Approach to Airport Revitalization

Andy Hume brings an unconventional perspective to airport management, viewing runways as roads and hangars as buildings in a miniature city. “My background is in urban and transportation planning,” he explains. “Prior to coming to the airport, I oversaw downtown revitalization for five years.” City officials specifically recruited him to apply revitalization principles to the airport and the adjacent Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park, recognizing parallels between urban renewal and aviation infrastructure development.

The mandate was clear: transform the airport into an economic development engine. “I was asked to apply revitalization to the airport, that lens of economic development,” Hume says. “The elected officials wanted that brought to the airport and to the innovation and industrial park. That philosophy through the economic development department was, I guess you can call it a mandate.”

Hume embraces the philosophy of Daniel Burnham, the renowned planner behind Chicago’s 1900 World’s Fair. “Make no small plans, or in our vernacular, go big or go home,” he quotes. “When it comes to things like our master plan update, seeking out economic development opportunities, are we thinking small? And if we’re thinking small, why are we thinking small?”

The approach goes beyond grand visions to practical improvements. “You’ve got to make sure you have a good product, a safe product for folks to use,” Hume emphasizes. “When you have a gateway, you’ve got to have a nice presentation. Things like ‘have our buildings been painted recently?’ When folks land here and walk through the terminal for the first time, do they see a building that looks like it’s 50 years old? Have we done things like updated the furniture?”

Strategic Partnerships and Multi-Pronged Development

Las Cruces International Airport’s 5,000 acres zoned for high industrial use create opportunities for aerospace partnerships beyond traditional aviation. The airport collaborated closely with the Las Cruces Innovation and Industrial Park during parallel master planning processes, ensuring complementary development strategies. “I participated in the Innovation Industrial Park Master planning project, and the lead for the Innovation Industrial Park project also participated in our master planning project,” Hume explains. “While there has to be a fence between the two, there was close collaboration.”

The partnership enables through-the-fence agreements, allowing companies to locate in the industrial park while accessing airport facilities for testing. “If there’s a company that does not necessarily need to locate on the airport but wants to utilize the airport to do testing, they can purchase or lease property in the industrial park and then have a through-the-fence agreement,” Hume says. Since the airport cannot sell land, this arrangement provides flexibility for companies seeking ownership rather than leases.

The master plan embraces multiple growth sectors, positioning Las Cruces as the nation’s only small community airport certified by the FAA for UAV testing. New Mexico State University’s Physical Science Laboratory operates as an anchor tenant, leveraging the airport’s proximity to White Sands Missile Range and 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace. “We have goals in UAV/UAS development, particularly focused around the lab. They’re an amazing group,” Hume notes.

Future Priorities: Infrastructure and Commercial Commitment

Two critical projects define Las Cruces International Airport’s immediate future. Safety upgrades funded for November 2025 include replacing the automated weather observation system and rotating beacon. “Obviously the AWOS is critical for pilots to know what the weather is as they’re coming into the airfield, and the rotating beacon is particularly important for aircraft coming in at night,” Hume explains. “Those are two significant safety upgrades that are funded and will be installed later this year.”

The reconstruction of Runway 5-23 represents a personal victory for Hume. “The runway was in really poor shape, and it took me five, almost six years to put together the funding to do this project,” he says. “Sometimes working in government takes a long time to get projects done, and this is one of those times, but I’m absolutely ecstatic that this project is getting done.” State Senator Bill Soules, a pilot himself, championed the state funding after the FAA declined to support the runway.

Looking ahead, Hume identifies two overriding priorities. “Priority number one has got to be infrastructure expansion,” he states. “We’ve got to get more property available for hangar development. We’ve got to extend our water infrastructure, our power infrastructure, our taxi lanes. I have folks who want to build hangars, but we need to expand our infrastructure.”

The second priority requires political will. “If we’re going to commit to doing commercial aviation, we need to invest in a terminal that can support commercial aviation,” Hume insists. “We’ve built excitement about commercial aviation. We need to commit to it. When we show that public commitment and say that this airport is important to us, the private investment will follow.”

As Hume reflects on his seven and a half years at Las Cruces International Airport, his passion remains undimmed. “I remember as I was approaching the airport for the first time, I was driving up thinking, ‘What in the hell did I get myself into? I don’t know the first thing about this,'” he recalls with a laugh. “It was the single best decision I’ve ever made in my career.” That decision merged his childhood fascination with aviation and his professional expertise in urban planning, creating a unique vision for an airport that operates like a well-planned city.

With commercial service restored, infrastructure projects underway, and partnerships expanding across aerospace and defense sectors, Las Cruces International Airport is ready to prove that small airports can indeed think big. For Hume, watching planes take off against the New Mexico sky never gets old, especially when each departure represents another step toward transforming a World War II-era airfield into a 21st-century gateway for innovation and economic growth.

AT A GLANCE

Who: Las Cruces International Airport (LRU)

What: A 2,193-acre general aviation airport with three runways, two FBOs, an international flight school, and recently restored commercial service.

Where: Las Cruces, New Mexico

Website: lascruces.gov/community/transportation/airport