Business View Magazine | June 2019

165 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JUNE 2019 DENTON ENTERPR I SE A I RPORT have two universities here in town, the University of North Texas, and Texas Woman’s University” says Gray. “So their sports teams and competitors will then be able to operate out of here. We anticipate that being completed about this time, next year – it’s about a nine-to-twelve-month process and we’re just getting started on that.” Further afield is the possibility of opening up even more land for development. Gray says it would depend on a possible freeway construction project, potentially sited just west of the Airport’s new parallel runway. “We only have seven acres, now – that will give us 150 acres to start looking into accommodating more of that demand – whether T-hangars, corporate hangars, whatever it might be.” Meanwhile, Gray says that Denton will continue to be an advantageous choice for both private and corporate aircraft, in what always seems to be a friendly, yet, still, competitive, arena. “There’s always a neighbor that a pilot can choose for a variety of reasons,” he admits. “We’re on the north side of the metroplex here in Dallas, so our competitors are McKinney National Airport, Meacham International Airport, and Alliance Airport, which is just down the road, about 15 minutes from us. And there’s Addison, here in town. They’re all corporate and GA airports, and that’s what we are, as well. In some cases they have advantages over us. For example, Addison and McKinney are closer to downtown Dallas; Meacham is closer to downtown Ft. Worth. The operators, or the person in the back of the airplane, have a particular place they’re trying to head, so they have an advantage over us because they’re closer to the downtown markets.” “But we have an advantage: we don’t have as busy an airspace environment because we’re north of the main airports like DFW and Dallas Love Field,” he counters. “We can handle the small, single engine airplanes, all the way to 737s and DC-9s. And we don’t have landing fees - our fee structure seems to be a little more reasonable.” Along with lower fees, Gray adds that Denton is also ideally situated on the cusp of the Greater Dallas/