By Josh Hinkle
GEORGETOWN, Texas (KXAN) – Georgetown Municipal Airport is a good touchdown point for planes north of Austin. Just 30 miles away from the race track, Airport Manager Sarah Hinton knows Formula One fans will soon crowd her runway.
“We’ll try to give them the best possible experience and let them know what it’s like to land in a small GA airport and give them the best customer service we can,” said Hinton.
Now the challenge is finding a place to park all of those private and charter planes. Across Central Texas, airports are fielding calls for F1 flights everyday, and they are filling up fast.
Smaller airports will let planes land that weekend without prior permission. So far, Lago Vista, New Braunfels and Horseshoe Bay have had calls.
But they are packing in at bigger places that require permission, too. Austin Executive Airport in Pflugerville has 22 reservations, Georgetown has six, and San Marcos has 15.
Then, there is Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Nearly 130 extra aircraft have made reservations there. Two runways help there at the area’s largest airport, but the numbers only keep going up…
“It would seem that F1 is bringing to us maybe more aircraft than any previous event on this scale,” said Jim Halbrook, ABIA spokesman.
Most of the 120,000 fans coming to town are from outside of the area, which means many will be flying.
“You know, the initial year, everybody will learn a lot,” said Hinton. “They should have it lined out. There’s been a lot of planning, so I think they’ll do well.”
http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/williamson/central-texas-airports-filling-up-for-f1