Business View Magazine
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ter traffic. And so, her administration is focusing on is
the completion of Gary Airport’s runway extension proj-
ect coupled with the repositioning of the airport’s rail
connections, and the re-industrialization of the area
around the airport.
“Once we finished the runway and the realignment of
the rail, we understood that it was important to have a
plan for the utilization of the airport because it has his-
torically been one of our least utilized resources.” In
fact, the airport has not had commercial flights since
2013, and currently only serves private and corporate
aircraft. So, the city engaged AFCO AvPORTS, a private
management company that runs New Jersey’s Teter-
boro Airport. “We didn’t know a lot about running an
airport and so it was important to bring on a partner
who had a level of expertise. We thought that there was
a synergy and some similarity to our area and the area
that Teterboro covers,” Freeman-Wilson says. “And so,
we’ve been engaged in that partnership and it not only
