Business View Magazine - October 2018

98 99 6,069 by 100 feet, asphalt; and 12/30 is 7,506 by 100 feet, concrete. Although the Airport no lon- ger hosts commercial airline traffic, it retains its terminal in case scheduled flights return to the facility. “The original airport was here in town,” re- counts Airport Director, Andy Hume. “It was on the east side of what was then Las Cruces, in an area that we now call the Hadley Complex. It’s been redeveloped into ball fields and city facilities. The location that we currently call Las Cruces Inter- national Airport was originally an Army air instal- lation. It was built during World War II and was active during that time. After World War II, the City acquired it and ever since then, it has gone through various iterations as the Las Cruces Mu- LAS CRUCES INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT nicipal Airport; at one time it was named for Mr. Bob Crawford, who was an aviation pioneer, here, in southern New Mexico; and currently, it’s called the Las Cruces International Airport.” According to Hume, nearby Santa Teresa and Alamogordo Airports offer Las Cruces the only competition in the area for air traffic, but he be- lieves that his facility offers several advantages. “We have amazingly open air space, pretty much, as far as the eye can see,” he states. “The south- ern route from El Paso skirts close by, but a good distance to the south of us, so we don’t have any conflict with major air carriers.We also have a buffer to the east of us, which is restricted air space over White Sands Missile Range and Hollo- man Air Force Base. So, I think that’s what really sets us apart.” “The other thing is our amazing weather,” he adds. “You can fly 320 days a year, or more.We don’t have a lot of inclement weather – some wind in the springtime, some thunderstorms in the summer - but our weather, generally, is phe- nomenal. So, I think there are a lot of comparative advantages that we have, based on location and climate. The last thing is that we have three run- ways, so we can accommodate a lot of different sizes of aircraft.We’ve had some 737/700s come in on charter flights; we’ve had political officials come in on Gulfstream jets.” Currently, Hume concedes that the Airport is not self-sufficient; it receives a subsidy from the City of Las Cruces to augment the fees it generates from land leases and fuel sales. But self-sufficien- cy is the goal and the Airport’s Master Plan identi- fies several areas of potential growth. “We’ve had a lot of interest in re-establishing at least one restaurant,” says Hume. “There have been talks about opportunities for a hotel to support com- muter or charter flights. So, the plans are there; we just need to develop them. Also, the City of Las Cruces recently reorganized the Airport into its Economic Development Department, so there’s