Business View Magazine | May 2021

127 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE MAY 2021 the east side of the airfield. Private franchise holders have constructed additional T-Hangars, corporate hangars, business complexes, and other facilities. “We have taken the position that you have to be constantly working on your facilities in order to attract new customers and make sure there are never any issues,” explains Juan E. Rivera, Airport Director at Manassas Regional. “And so we have developed a process of making sure we are designing and planning for construction two to five years out. Then we have time to get all the FAA grants in order, make sure everything is ready, line up the budget, and begin work. The process, in my experience, usually takes five years, so you constantly have to have something in the hopper.” Two airport capital projects scheduled for completion in 2021 were recently finished – a rehabilitation of the short runway and the building of a new Taxiway Golf and Taxiway Yankee. Rehabilitation of Taxiways Alpha and Bravo are now in the design phase, and preparations to create the new Airport Master Plan are also underway. That process which should take about 18 months to complete. Currently, they are going through the “scope of work” process and doing an independent fee estimate that is required by the FAA. Once the new Master Plan is approved, it is expected to guide the airport forward for the next 20 years. There is hope that this plan will include a new control tower. The current tower has an interesting and storied history and has just about run its course. In 1992, the City of Manassas undertook the first-ever effort to “recycle” an air traffic control tower. The tower was from an airport near Denver, CO, where it was disassembled and shipped to Manassas. “It was a great idea at the time,” explains Rivera, “because the cost was a lot cheaper. But you have to think that tower is now going on 64 or 65 years – that is a healthy amount of time.” MANASSAS REGIONAL A I RPORT