News
McKinney's Flying High
August 17, 2010
| McKinney's Collin County Regional Airport leaders have another reason to be flying high: Its $57M runway expansion is the single largest project administered by Texas DOT's Division of Aviation. | |
 | |
| McKinney Airport Development Corp. ED Ken Wiegand, right, with airport operations manager Chris Rozansky, says the runway construction project's funding comes from four sources: $33M from the FAA, $11M from TxDOT, $7M from the McKinney Economic Development Corp, and $6M from the City of McKinney (which owns the airport). Ken says the runway will exceed federal design standards, with a goal of accommodating commercial aircraft. It's slated for a 2012 completion, Ken tells us. Bad weather over O'Hare may delay it 'til 2013. | |
 | |
| Ken says a $3.9M replacement control tower for the new runway is also under construction and should be ready in 2011. The current runway was rehabbed (picture runway physical therapy) and white-topped in November 2007. It will become the airport's parallel taxiway and serve as a back-up if the new runway is temporarily closed for any reason, Ken says. “This alone provides us with an operational and economic advantage over most general aviation reliever airports in the Metroplex, which have single runways and no backup.†The airport's influence is felt across Collin County, Ken says, with Texas Instruments in Richardson, Crossmark, and Hewlett-Packard (both in Plano's Legacy Business Park) all basing aircraft there. | |
 | |
| Ken says traffic has increased at the airport since the Dallas Love Field $519M modernization program (20 new gates, slated for completion October 2014) started in Q2. Ken says issues of encroachment, deteriorating infrastructure, and operational delays at other regional airports are causing business aviation operations to look elsewhere for new bases. The increasing plight of business aviation at these airports and the willingness of McKinney to provide relocation incentive packages have enhanced the attractiveness of Collin County Regional, he says. |
