Airport expands to meet needs, stimulating jobs

Airport officials say the future looks promising for Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport.

The federal government has pumped millions of stimulus dollars into the facility’s rehabilitation projects, officials are seeking to add new flights as early as next year, and in perhaps the largest recent development, the airport will soon see cargo operations reopen on its airfield by the beginning of August — an enterprise it lost in the 1950s to Valley International Airport in Harlingen.

"There has definitely been a lot of expansion based on our growth," said Michael D. Jones, business development manager for the Brownsville airport.

The expansion is all part of a master plan, Jones and other officials said, to create an airport that will meet the demands of a quickly growing city. And the airport’s development bodes another plus — new jobs.

At least a dozen construction projects are slated to begin this year or are already under way, Jones said. With funds from the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation and a $3.6 million grant from the Federal Aviation Administration, the airport has been rehabilitating its taxiways, relocating and expanding old buildings and has constructed new parking lots.

A 20,000 square-foot hangar was inaugurated earlier this year, and two fixed-base operations hangers are expected to be completed by August. Officials also are looking to increase the length of the airport’s runway within the next three years — from about 7,400 linear feet to 10,000 — which would eliminate weight restrictions for many aircraft during the peak heat of summer, airport Director Larry Brown said.

Such expansion could help bring more flights, which would stimulate job growth, Jones said. Officials have been working in recent months to acquire permission to develop a nonstop flight to Chicago. The approval could be granted sooner if the merger between the major airlines, Continental and United, which was announced last month, is approved by the federal government, a process that could a take time.

But airport leaders already are talking of providing nonstop air services to other cities in high demand.

"We think and we have been able to demonstrate we have a definite need for (such services) to Monterrey and Mexico City," Jones said. Also on the list are Veracruz and Cancun. By 2011, airport officials are planning to have nonstop services to these cities and places like Leon and Queretaro, automotive and aerospace manufacturing centers in Mexico, Jones said.

New air services would create new jobs in the area, he added, pointing to a study by faculty at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College School of Business.

One domestic flight in the Brownsville area brings in more than $2 million to the area’s economy, creates more than 200 permanent jobs and brings in more than $350,000 in sales tax revenue, the study found.

Cargo operations reopening at the Brownsville airport also look promising for job growth, officials said.

Back in the 1950s, "Harlingen cut (air freight companies) a deal they could not refuse," and all cargo businesses moved out of Brownsville’s airport, Jones said. But as the facility and the city continue to rapidly grow, at least one airfreight company is seizing the opportunity to open shop.

World-Wide Consolidated Logistics Inc., a logistics company based in Chicago, is working to create an international transportation system that pinpoints the Brownsville airport as a gateway into Latin America, much as it was in the 1930s when Pan American Airlines operated out of the facility, said the company’s vice president, Richard Alaniz.

"We are in the process of reopening that gateway," Alaniz said. "With the growth of the Brownsville area, as well as continued development of its port, we see a need for air cargo."

The logistics business is aiming to build the global transportation network to be able to move products around the world from its sister company, World-Wide Aquatics Inc. World-Wide Aquatics ships resort swimming pools, fountains and other aquatics equipment to locations around the world, from Egypt, Greece and Costa Rica to Dubai and Liberia.

World-Wide Logistics, which is hoping to attract other air freight businesses to take its routes, is designating its transportation hub in Palo Verde, off of the North African coast, and is planning on housing several cargo planes at Brownsville/South Padre International. The company has mapped 70 routes through the airport into Latin America, terminating in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

It also has plans to open a certified cargo screening facility by August at Brownsville airport. The facility has been approved by the Transportation Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, World-Wide’s president, Robert Hedrick, said. It should attract other cargo companies to the airport, since as of Aug. 1 all freight carriers will be required to be 100 percent screened due to a security law passed by Congress in 2007 as part of the 9/11 Commission Act.