Business View Magazine September 2018

182 183 outboard sections of it – the keel section was rehabilitated in the ‘90s, so it was still in good shape.” “The two runway projects were ma- jority funded with FAA grant funding,” Campbell continues. “Those two have a local match with passenger facility charge revenue. The east/west runway was a 95/5 split; the north/south runway was a 90/10. So, that was a significant investment and that doesn’t include some improvements to our general avi- ation aprons and taxiways, which were funded with airport revenues – asphalt and pavement work around the fuel farms, the apron, and the T-hangars on the west side.We also completed anoth- er million-dollar apron rehab on the east side.” Future capital projects over the next several years will concentrate, initially, on the Airport’s terminal building. “It opened in 1976, and even though we’ve done some minor renovations, rehabili- tations, and replacements over the years, it needs a facelift,” Campbell avers. “So, the focus, right now, is on the termi- nal building; that will be followed by a project to replace the existing fire sta- tion. Those are the two biggest projects. We have a Master Plan that was done in 2007, and there are several airfield projects on it that are still viable –but if I had to guess, today, I would say that it could be a cargo apron expansion. We have a very strong cargo operation with FedEx and UPS. FedEx is actually our second largest operator in terms of LUBBOCK PRESTON SMITH INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT landed weight, behind Southwest. Almost all of the existing cargo ramp is leased and being uti- lized. So, that’s where we would hope to see some growth and some potential.” Campbell doesn’t believe that Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport is necessarily in com- petition with other regional airports for commer- cial service and passengers: “To our north, about a two-hour drive is Amarillo International Airport, and to the south, two hours, is Midland Interna- tional Airport. There are places between Lubbock and those two areas where residents can choose between Amarillo and Lubbock, or Midland and Lubbock. So, there is some competition, but we are very isolated, out here, in west Texas, so we don’t have significant leakage of commercial pas- sengers to other commercial service airports.” Regarding GA traffic, she explains each small local GA airport has advantages and disadvantag- es. “From a GA perspective, some of the smaller airports –hangar space is cheaper, fuel is cheap- er, so there’s some competition there. But, it just depends on what the pilot is looking for. To one person, being at an airport that has perimeter