the military during World War II. Over the years it has hosted several commercial airlines, including Capital Airlines, Piedmont Airlines, CCAir, and Delta, the last of which ceased operations at Hickory in 2005. Owned and operated by the City of Hickory, the 739-acre airport has one asphalt runway, which measures 6,400 X 150 feet; a full-service FBO (Fixed Base Operator), that operates year-round, and is also owned and operated by the city; two fuel farms and three fuel trucks providing Avgas and Jet A fuel; two flight schools; ARFF (Aircraft rescue and firefighting) services; a US Forest Service base for the western part of the state; and a customer terminal that was built in 1960. Today, it caters to a combination of private propeller aircraft, corporate jets, charter companies, medevac flights, and cargo planes. NEW MANAGEMENT DIRECTION Chad Hunsucker is the airport’s newManager, having been appointed this past January to replace Terry Clark who retired after more than 42 years of service. After growing up in Hickory, Hunsucker spent 27 years in the US Navy, managing aviation operations and personnel at numerous military airfields. He also served as an Air Traffic Control Specialist at nearby Concord Regional Airport.About his new position, he relates,“Hickory is my hometown. The opportunity to come back here, and to provide the vision of where we want to go with this airport is amazing to me. I couldn’t have dreamed of a better opportunity.” CONSTRUCTION OF A LEADING PATH Hunsucker outlines some of the airport’s recent, current, and future projects. “One of the largest projects we just had involved a closing, which will turn into an opening,”he begins.“We used to have two runways here; the secondary runway was officially closed in January. The reason we did that was to turn that real estate into an area we could refocus on for economic impact. We recently completed building a set of 12 T-hangars. We have already started construction on a second set of 12 T-hangars, and we are also pursuing building another group hangar that can hold larger jet aircraft. That project is in its final stages so we’re expecting construction on both the new T-hangar and the group hangar to begin this summer. That allows us not only to 155 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 11, ISSUE 06 HICKORY REGIONAL AIRPORT
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