HUNTSVILLE – Business is taking off in Huntsville. The municipal airport hopes an expansion will take it to new heights.
As a former commercial pilot, Mitch Inman knows the importance of air travel to the economy.
“If the managers can’t get to their businesses, they’re going to move them to where they can,” Inman said.
Landing a big deal means corporate jets need to be able to land here
“We’re currently at 5,000 feet and the plan was to add 1,000 additional feet to the runway.”
That expansion is not going to cost taxpayers a thing…thanks to gas the airport sells.
“Part of that fuel also has a tax on it and that’s how the federal government is paid which pays for the upgrade on the airport.”
An extra thousand feet on the runway might not seem like very much to you and me but for corporate jets especially, it means safer travel and that could mean more business for Huntsville.
“If time is money, this is a time machine,” said Ben Bius of his plane.
Bius is a business owner who helped bring Hobby Lobby to Huntsville, has seen first hand how a bigger airport would be a big plus.
“I called up Hobby Lobby at 9 o’clock on the last day of the eleventh hour and I said, ‘we’ve got to either do this deal or it’s going to die’ and I said ‘I’ll be in your office in two hours.”
And the rest is history, as the Hobby Lobby sits at the corner of Highway 30 and Interstate 45 in Huntsville.
http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Huntsville-Airport-Expansion-Could-Benefit-Economy-271007331.html