Virginia Highlands Airport

$24 million. It just spent $1 million on tree- clearing to enhance the safety of its approaches for arriving and departing aircraft. More than $16 million has been spent, so far, on a project to expand a 4,471-foot runway to 5,500 feet. Capital funding for the Airport comes primarily from the Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program. In the Commonwealth of Virginia, these programs are funded with 90 percent Federal Aviation Administration money. The Virginia Department of Aviation covers eight percent, and like many general aviation airports, two percent comes from the Airport’s sponsors, in this instance, that’s the Virginia Highlands Airport Authority and Washington County. That investment in the Airport is intended to help keep the economy growing in Southwest Virginia. According to a 2018 Economic Impact Study, Virginia Highlands Airport supports 87 jobs with an annual payroll of more than $3.1 million, and an area economic impact of over $7.4 million. The Airport is also part of The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems, which is submitted to Congress in accordance with Section 47103 of Title 49 of the United States Code. The plan identifies 3,380 public- use airports that are significant to national air transportation and, therefore, eligible to receive grants under the Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program. The official designations the Virginia Highlands Airport enjoy today belie its humble beginning. In the late 1950s, the Appalachian Power Company began construction of its Clinch River Power Plant, located about 30 miles north of Abingdon in Carbo, Virginia. An employee of the company building the plant wanted to live in the Abingdon area and fly to the construction site at Carbo. At the time, there were no nearby landing strips in the area, so some farmland was leased from what was known as the St. John farm, located about two miles west of Abingdon, next to U.S. Highway 11. The Airport started there with just a small dirt strip graded out of a pasture. Over the years, other area residents