Business View Magazine | April 2020

121 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE APRIL 2020 THOMASV I LLE REGIONAL A I RPORT life of five to eight years,” Petty notes. “Part of the rejuvenation process was to do a crack seal project before they sprayed the material with a product to activate the binder in the asphalt onto the runway. It’s the same runway, but now it’s crack-sealed and rejuvenated. It also included the installation of PAPI (Precision Approach Path Indicator) lights on runway 32, and there’s also some remarking that was done on both runways.” “The big project that we’re looking at for later this year is an apron joint seal project, which looks at the apron in front of the FBO and about half of the general aviation hangars,” Smith continues. “Any broken concrete slabs would be removed and replaced. Otherwise, if there are just cracks, they’ll do a crack seal. That project is being scheduled outside of quail season, which is our big season. We’re also looking at additional approaches for 14/32. That’s going to take about 18 months, and it’s something we’re looking at in the near future; probably about a year and a half. “Then, the big project coming up is the line of sight project on our primary runway between the end of Runway 4 and 22. From one side, you can’t see an aircraft sitting on the other side. The FAA has an initiative where they’re looking at airports where the primary runways have line of sight issues and they’re making them remove any humps in the runway, or raising the elevation at the end of a runway in order to remove that line of sight issue. So, that’s coming up in 2023. Some of the development that we’re doing on the secondary runway is going to support the transference of operations from the primary to the secondary runway during construction. That is the reason for the additional GPS approaches and the inclusion of the PAPI system on 14.” Regarding competition from other area airports, Petty says that the nearest ones are Tallahassee International Airport, Valdosta Regional Airport, and Southwest Georgia Regional Airport in Albany. “They’re all about 60 miles from this Airport – one to the south, one to the east, and