GULF SHORES CONSIDERS COMMERCIAL JETLINERS

New commuter terminal proposed
Published By Mobile Press Register
Monday, July 31, 2006
By JIM ELLIS
Staff Reporter

GULF SHORES -- As south Baldwin County's beach cities grow, so too must the airport that serves them. That's what airport officials are saying after plans for a commuter terminal were rolled out last week.

Within five years, connecting flights by commercial airlines could be using Jack Edwards Airport to go to and from major cities like Atlanta, if the recommendations made by a private engineering firm are approved by airport and city officials.

The airport, which has two runways and is on 830 acres east of Alabama 59, now provides service for private air travel only. Nearly $38 million in construction projects to be completed in three stages during the next 20 years have been proposed in a report commissioned by Gulf Shores to determine the area's aviation needs by 2025, according to consultants with Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon Inc.

The engineering, architectural and surveying firm tapped to conduct the study has 12 locations throughout Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and Ohio.

The first stage of the plan includes a 32,000-square-foot commuter terminal with waiting areas and ticketing and baggage services accommodating commercial flights to and from the airport.

"The entire south Baldwin County coastal community is in a phenomenal growth period. It's going to continue to grow," said Airport Authority Manager Russ Kilgore. "And the airport needs to grow with it."

Airport officials have not met with any commercial airlines yet, Kilgore said.

"We haven't knocked on any doors and will not do that until we further study the economics and demographics of the area," he said. "It stands to reason, though, that with the millions of visitors we have every year, commercial services are going to look to expand to this area."

About 80,000 takeoffs and landings were fielded at the airport last year -- a figure that could double by 2025, according to the report.

For two years the airfield has been operating in
Direct commuter flights between Gulf Shores and major cities across the nation would broaden the ability of beachfront condominiums and other resort businesses to market Gulf Shores and Orange Beach as a viable destination, said Mark Berson, president of the Alabama Area Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce.

For example, four-day golf packages that include air travel and a beachfront condominium may lure vacationers from as far away as Detroit, Berson said.

"A lot of people don't know about Gulf Shores and Orange Beach in the rest of the country," he said. "They know about Florida and the beaches along the Panhandle but not us necessarily,"

The commercial jets that may route through Gulf Shores would include airplanes, such as the Boeing 737-300, a short, narrow-body airliner with less than 150 seats that is typically used for short hauls, Kilgore said.

Other airport improvements suggested in the study include:

A taxiway north of runway 9/27 to service the new commuter terminal.

600 short- and long-term parking spaces.

A new access road from Cotton Creek Drive.

Doubling in size the existing general aviation terminal.

An aircraft rescue and firefighting building on the northwest side of the airport.
An air traffic control tower on the south side of the airport.

The more than $37 million price tag required to finance all of the suggested improvements would largely come from federal and private funding, with local and state funds picking up about $2.5 million of the overall bill, according to the report.

The first stage would cost more than $20 million and take five years to complete, said Mark S. Counts, a firm representative who presented the study last week.

Funding sources would be identified as plans are finalized and individual improvements are approved, Kilgore said.

"Whether or not we obtain funding will determine if we do a project or hold back on a project," he said.

If airport services expand to include larger aircraft, noise could pose a hazard for Faulkner State Community College to the west of the airport and residential neighborhoods to the east, said Jennifer Stone, a planner who helped conduct the study. The airport would be required to provide a solution, such as funding any affected structures to be sound-proofed, Stone said.

About 40 homeowners living just outside airport grounds attended the public workshop held last week, with most residents seeming to favor plans to build a commuter terminal at the airfield.

Kenneth Fletcher, an ex-pilot who flew a Piper Comanche out of Jack Edwards for 10 years, lives north of the airport in the Craft Farms community.

"I think this plan is long overdue," Fletcher said.

Jerry Crompton, who also lives north of the airport in the Cotton Bay subdivision, said he paid extra for his home so that he can watch from his back yard as the planes take off and land.

"I may have to build a tower, so I can watch the airplanes again," joked Crompton, referring to the airport's proposed improvements.

Two copies of the full study are available for review at the Gulf Shores Library. Residents can send written comments, complaints or suggestions to the Airport Authority, Gulf Shores City Hall, P.O. Box 299, Gulf Shores 36547-0299. Friday is the deadline for receiving all suggestions. Final adoption of the study is scheduled for Aug. 28.