Business View Magazine | Volume 9, Issue 1

153 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 1 completed, and with that, they increased the parking facilities from about 300 to 950 parking spaces. They have also recently completed an aircraft apron project that provided two more apron locations for commercial aircraft. “Everything we build now, we are making big enough and heavy enough to handle up to 737s,” says Needham. “We are also working with the city of Hobbs – they’re bringing municipal water and sewer out to the airport and it’s about a 7000-foot extension which will allow us to not only tie our facilities into them but also to open up the entry area and the entrance road coming into the airport for hotel development or restaurant developments. This will create a lot of opportunity for us, not having to rely on our own private well system. All of this is following a master plan created in 2013 with Kaufman and Associates, and next year we have plans to do a master plan update to make sure that our targets and assumptions are still the same as they were eight years ago.” Looking to the future, Needham would like to see the airport’s enplanements stabilize and come back from COVID. He adds, “I would also like to bring in more vendors and perhaps some coffee shop type space. I see that there is a lot of potential for development around the airport in the next few years. Restaurants, and perhaps even a hotel would benefit not only the airport but the community in general. We just want to make travelling in and out of Lea County Regional Airport much easier and better for people in the area.” molzencorbin.com An Employee-Owned Company Albuquerque w Las Cruces w Carlsbad w El Paso Molzen Corbin is a full-service, New Mexico-based consulting engineering and architecture firm. As specialists in airport engineering, we have been the most trusted and reliable partner to New Mexico’s airports for over 60 years. Fueling Economic Growth Protecting Public Safety Supporting Tourism LEA COUNTY REGIONAL A I RPORT