Business View Magazine | December 2018

206 207 or of Lieutenant Colonel John Brooke England, a much-decorated combat pilot, who died on No- vember 17, 1954. As an active military installation, England AFB employed 3,000 military and 681 civilian personnel. At the end of the Cold War, the United States Department of Defense decided to close many of its military bases under the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC), to which EAF ultimately fell victim in 1992. The City of Alexandria feared that the economic impact of the airfield closing would devastate the local economy to the tune of $100 million a year, so it created the England Economic and Industrial Development District (England Authority) to take over the base for the purpose of creating a major air transport resource for the region and the state. In August 1993, Alexandria International Airport (AEX) opened for service. In August 1996, it began to receive commercial airline passenger service with flights to and from Atlanta, Dallas/Ft.Worth, Houston, and Memphis, although service to Mem- phis was subsequently discontinued. Today, the Airport is served by American, United, and Delta AT A GLANCE ALEXANDRIA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT & ENGLANDAIRPARK WHAT: A public use airport and repurposed military base WHERE: Alexandria, Louisiana WEBSITE: www.englandairpark.org/aex ALEXANDRA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT & ENGLAND AIRPARK Airlines with connections to those three cities; all three operate either Canadair or Embraer region- al jet aircraft. Foreign airlines include KLM, Kore- an Air, Copa, Air France, and Virgin Atlantic. Since the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Airport has also played an important role in mov- ing thousands of military personnel and millions of pounds of cargo in support of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The United States military, under a commercial lease with the England Authority, invested nearly $60 million in airfield facilities, including hazardous cargo loading/unloading aprons, a military passenger processing facility, a military air cargo apron, and runway resurfacing. Alexandria International Airport has two run- ways: 14/32 is 9,352 by 150 feet with a concrete surface; 18/36 is 7,001 by 150 feet with an as- phalt and concrete surface. AEX sees 50,000 air operations per year; a little over one third of its air traffic is military; another third is general avi- ation; the rest is air taxi and scheduled commer- cial. Its aviation-centric activities support over 1,300 jobs, with an economic impact of over $144