Airport plan hits snag

Port Aransas has run into a slight snag in its plan to create a publicprivate partnership at Mustang Beach Airport.

It seems the city's lease with the Texas General Land Office (GLO), which owns the property, doesn't allow for commercial development on the land.

The city's Airport Advisory Board proposed the idea to city council members in November, and the council agreed, saying that combining the right private company with city airport property could make a beneficial arrangement for everybody.

Mustang Beach already has a good runway, available fuel and one of the best landing approach systems in this area, based on the Global Positioning System (GPS). It doesn't have anybody at the airport to greet incoming visitors and provide them with advice on where to go for a rental car, which hotel is the closest, or what restaurants are having specials – as well as service for the airplane itself.

Since the city can't afford to pay somebody to do that, the board's thought was to lease property to the company, called a “fixed base operator,” in return for keeping the airport manned.

Board chairman Keith Donley said people who fly to Port Aransas are people who spend money here. They're the type of visitor we should be trying to attract, Donley says.

Terms of the current lease with the GLO would throw a monkey wrench in that scheme, however.

The city is trying to renegotiate the lease, and while they're at it they'll update all the terms and provisions, said David Parsons, Director of Planning and Projects. That rewriting is now going on.

Parsons couldn't say when word is expected back on the GLO's reaction, however.

“We don't even know how long a process it is,” he said.