Airport poised for improvements
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Keith Donley doesn't like to talk about expanding Mustang Beach Airport.

"We have plenty of land," said Donley, chairman of the city's Airport Advisory Board. "We don't need more land. What we have is an under-utilized airport."

The board has a vision of using the airport better, in a way that will bring more money into Port Aransas and perhaps even make some money for the city. To that end, Donley presented an idea to the city council on Nov. 19: Why not see if private companies would be interested in setting up shop at the airport at no cost to the city?

What Mustang Beach has now is a good runway, a building, some hangars, fuel for sale and a good instrument approach system.

What it doesn't have is somebody on hand to provide information and service to visiting fliers.

Improvement Airport Board chairman Keith Donley stands on property the board is looking at for improvements to the field without spending city money.

In flying jargon, that's called an "FBO" - a Fixed Base Operator, the company that runs the aircraft servicing, map selling, information office, snack bar - whatever the airport has to offer.

"It all comes down to having an FBO," Donley said.

He likes to relate the story about when he flew in to Mustang Beach for a weekend and returned to the airport on Monday morning to find that his plane had a flat tire. Donley had to go buy a jack, jack up the airplane himself, remove the tire, take it to Corpus Christi to be repaired, bring it back to Port Aransas, put it back on the plane, and fly back home.

He lost two days' work, he said.

"We have everything we need for getting here and for leaving," he said. "What we need to do is make it easy to stay here."

People who use Mustang Beach Airport are likely to be people who spend money here, he maintains. They rent cars, they dine out, they rent or own condos, they pay taxes.

"I have yet to see somebody fly in to the airport and take a tent and cooler and walk down to the beach for the weekend," he said.

Donley said the city has already accomplished a lot at Mustang Beach. He cites fuel sales and a relativelynew global positioning system (GPS) program that lets private pilots fly to Port Aransas in virtually any kind of weather.

"The only places in this area with a better (airport) approach system are the Naval Air Station and Corpus Christi International Airport," he said.

But when two people manned the airport on weekends over the past sum- mer, courtesy of an anonymous grant to pay them for their time, it was a hit with visiting pilots.

The solution would be simple: provide an attendant at the airport all the time to help visitors find rent cars, provide directions, recommend restaurants, fuel aircraft, locate places to park transient planes and make relatively simple repairs.

The question is, who would pay for it.

The answer is, the FBO - if we had one.

Income from fuel sales and hangar rent is OK, but certainly not enough to provide the money to match improvement grants at the airport, Donley said.

"A public-private partnership might do that," he said. "The city would provide the location and incentives. The income would provide the revenue for matching grants."

What kind of improvements?

More hangars, for one thing. The hangars at Mustang Beach are now used by local people who store their planes in the buildings. Visiting aircraft are parked on a hard-surfaced ramp as long as the space holds out. After that, they're parked on the grass.

That's OK as long as the weather is fine. When it rains, it's not so good.

"I've seen million-dollar aircraft parked in several inches of water," Donley said. "It's like asking the owner of a Cadillac to park his car in the mud, and wade through it to get there."

Donley said sooner or later, a fence also will be needed around the airport, for security reasons if for no other reason. The city doesn't have the money to pay for a fence.

Where would all this be put?

The airport land borders State Hwy. 361 from Piper Boulevard, the street that fronts the airport, as far north as Sharkey's, Donley said. That land would provide room for any improvements the airport would need. A taxiway could lead from there to the runway area.

Improvements in that area would impact neither the wetlands owned by the Texas General Land Office nor the Charlie's Pasture Nature Preserve that the city is now designing.

Any permits needed from the General Land Office or from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could be handled by the city and paid for by the private company.

"I would certainly expect someone who wanted to develop to share the burden with the city," Donley said.

However, the airport board doesn't see developing much beyond that, even looking as far ahead as 2025, Donley said.

"We'll never be a big feeder airport because of land restrictions if for no other reason," he said. "We'll never see another runway at Mustang Beach."

City council members gave their blessing to the idea on Nov. 19, telling the city staff to go ahead with developing requests for proposals for private companies. There's no timeline on when those requests might be finished.

The concept will be carried forward at the board's next meeting, which will be in January, though Donley said no date has been set yet.

"We'll probably further refine expectations and review any proposals that have come in at that time," he said.