SAN ANGELO, Texas — San Angelo's aerial gateway will look more like a modern metropolitan airport after $4 million in work on the Mathis Field terminal starting this year.
The outdated arrivals and departures structure at Mathis Field is scheduled for a face-lift that will be completed by spring 2013. Conceptual drawings show a sleek, modern terminal with an open floor plan replacing the cramped space travelers currently see.
"It will be a simple but elegant terminal," said Airport Director Luis Elguezabal. "We're going to bring it out of the 1950s. It's something San Angelo will be proud of."
Elguezabal said the main goal of the renovation project is to address space issues by opening up the floor plan and diminishing the crisscrossing flow of arriving and departing passengers. Accordingly, the project plans include significant spatial improvements.
The narrow 4-foot passageway that connects the main lobby with the baggage claim area will be widened to more than 30 feet; the baggage claim area will be expanded to ease the congestion that occurs in the wake of a full inbound flight. The Transportation Security Administration area will be expanded to make room for new X-ray machines that will soon occupy every commercial airport.
"My biggest problem was the baggage area was always too small," Elguezabal said.
The terminal's two cafes — Mathis Field and Sister's — will remain. Sister's will gain an outdoor seating area in front of the terminal, overlooking the passenger drop off and pick up area. The solid wall that blocks the concourse — which was renovated in 2006, as well as the only working escalators in the city — will be replaced with glass. It will make the area around the terminal's three gates visible from the terminal's front entrance so that people can watch passengers arriving and departing.
"All this architecture, all this beauty is what we want to bring down to the terminal," said Elguezabal while standing on the upstairs portion of the concourse in early December. "We have this beautiful concourse we built in '06, and no one can see it."
He adds, smiling, "I'm really excited about this project."
The project design, completed by local firm KSA Engineering, calls for a slight increase in the actual square footage of the terminal building, but Elguezabal said it will make the small terminal feel more like a welcoming destination and increase the airport's "implanement" capacity — a term for the number of incoming and outgoing passengers who go through an airport. The San Angelo airport's implanements have increased from 35,000 to 40,000 per year in 2004 to about 87,000 in 2008. The yearly average has declined since then to about 60,000 and four to five flights a day, the majority of which go to Dallas. The 18-month renovation will up the implanement capacity to 125,000 per year.
Elguezabal jokes that the best part of the renovation will be the removal of the big green Dumpster on the right side of the drive leading to the terminal's front entrance. The big trash bin — there for the use of the cafes — will be removed to make way for a grand, white stone entrance with a monument and flags.
"No one wants to see a Dumpster when they drive up," Elguezabal said.
FAA FOOTING THE BILL
Perhaps the best part of the project is that the Federal Aviation Administration will foot most of the bill. The FAA had originally agreed to grant $3 million for the project, but with the passage of the limitless half-cent sales tax ordinance in November, which created $500,000 additional for the project, Elguezabal said he was able to negotiate to secure more funds.
"I was able to leverage another $1 million," he said. "It's an advantage that I don't know if a lot of voters know about or not."
The airport had already dedicated $400,000 of passenger facility charges to the renovation before the election, bringing the amount available for the project to about $4.9 million. However, the latest estimate shows the project will cost about $4.2 million. Either way, the FAA will foot 90 percent of the bill, the city the other 10 percent.
Not including the $4 million it has dedicated to this project, the FAA has provided $14.8 million to the San Angelo Airport in the last three years. All of it is from the agency's aviation trust fund, which is fed by the taxes passengers pay on their tickets.
Because the FAA only funds renovation for the public areas of terminals, the $500,000 half-cent sales tax dollars will be used to refurbish the limited access areas of the airport like the airport administration offices, which will be relocated from the center of the terminal to the far southeast corner.
Elguezabal said the FAA funding was contingent on the quality of the airport's most critical infrastructure.
"They would have never allowed (renovations) to come to the terminal if the infrastructure wasn't good," Elguezabal said.
The terminal renovation project is one of the final major components in a five-year airport improvement plan that Elguezabal, who was hired almost four years ago, has managed to tick through in 2½ years. It has included redoing all eight taxiways and bringing the fencing around the airport up to federal standards. The rehabilitation — or resurfacing — of one of the airport's three runways was completed last month.
"We've been focusing for the past three years on infrastructure. Now we can concentrate on the terminal," Elguezabal said.
The project will go out to bid for construction this year and will be awarded by the summer. Construction will begin in the early fall and last 18 months.
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
American Eagle, a regional airline system operated by American Airlines, remains the San Angelo airport's main carrier.
American Eagle Spokesman Ed Martelle said the company is normally leery of construction projects — because of any costs that might be passed on to fund them — but gives its full endorsement to this one.
"We're always concerned about construction because it may mean raising fees at the airport and that sort of thing," Martelle said. "But with that said, the facility in San Angelo really needed a makeover, and we're tickled it's getting it, and we're excited about the fact that not only will it be a better experience for passengers moving through the terminal, getting through security — that stuff will be better integrated into the process — we're also pleased the new terminal will have curb appeal, for both arriving and departing passengers."
As to the always looming question of whether the airport will secure additional airlines, Elguezabal said that is something he plans to continue focusing on, especially after the renovation project is completed.
"We will continue looking at other airlines to come in," he said. "Hopefully the economy will have improved by then to where airlines will be more interested."
As to what carrier might be most likely to sign on, Elguezabal said he doesn't know — except that it won't be Southwest Airlines.
"They've locked down Texas. They're expanding in other markets," he said, adding that Southwest also chooses airports with minimum implanement capacities of 400,000.
But, Elguezabal said, it will be important to maintain contact with Continental Airlines, which he notes has "pulled out three times and come back twice." The last time the airline left was in 2008 when the company cited fuel prices and scheduling problems as the main reasons for its departure.
Elguezabal told the Standard-Times in 2008 that a majority of the airport's revenue comes from leasing space in the terminal, as well as hangars — not from commercial airlines. The departure of Continental cost the airport less than 2 percent of its then $1.5 million annual budget.
When asked whether the area's stagnant population growth will affect progress at the airport, Elguezabal said the airport's growth depends less on population and more on a strong, lucrative local economy.
"It's the willingness and ability of people to fly out," he said.
Recalling that having an airport that can connect to the rest of the world was one of Martifer Energy System's location stipulations, Elguezabal said he's glad the city recognizes the airport as an important investment.
"I'm glad the City Council and COSADC decided it was a good economic investment, because it is," Elguezbal said.
In past years the airport has seen an increase in cargo operations and general aviation flights. FedEx runs three to four flights per day, UPS one. Private and commercial flights — which have been on the rise for the past two years — have increased by more than 4 percent from last year.
Chamber of Commerce President Phil Neighbors says having a good airport is important for not only business attraction and retention, but also for the city's growing tourism industry.
"As our art and nature tourism have gained importance in our economy, we've tracked more ridership to those industries," Neighbors said. "So for all of those reasons I think the airport will continue to grow in its importance."
ALL ABOARD
Implanement statistics for Mathis Field during the past 11 years:
2000: 50,493
2001: 47,682
2002: 39,949
2003: 48,856
2004: 60,173
2005: 66,076
2006: 71,043
2007: 71,609
2008: 66,298
2009: 61,580
2010: 57,246
An implanement is one fare-paying, outbound passenger.
|
