At last Thursday’s meeting of the Texarkana Regional Airport Authority board members discussed the new terminal’s construction progress, a long-term masterplan creation, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the inaugural flight to Houston was announced.
In preparation for Texarkana’s new United Airlines flight to Houston, airport officials are excited to welcome everyone to a Ribbon Cutting ceremony. It will be held at Gate 1 in the terminal building at 1:30 pm on Sunday, February 13th. This event will be open to the public; however, federal regulations still require masks to be worn inside of the terminal building.
Folks can book tickets for the new United Airlines flight to Houston now!
Director of Aviation Paul Mehrlich announced that the concrete and ditch paving has been completed for the south taxiway. Also, the north taxiway is completed with a tower-controlled airfield lighting system to be installed in February.
“At that point, in theory, we could open up taxiway Delta, but we are going to keep it closed to be used as a haul-route for construction of the new terminal,” Mehrlich said.
Terminal construction Phase 1, site prep and slab pouring is completed; Phase 2 began with erecting the red steel beams over the last week weeks.
According to Mehrlich, the FAA required a multi-phase plan in four parts, but airport officials are requesting the combination of Phases 3 and 4 to save both time and money.
Airport officials also discussed preparing TRA’s Master Plan. For clarification, “An Airport Master Plan is a process to plan for the short, intermediate, and long term development goals of the Airport. The goal of the Airport Master Plan is to provide the framework needed to guide future airport development that will cost-effectively satisfy aviation demand while considering potential environmental and socioeconomic issues,” according to Google.
The ten-year Master Plan will allow for new projects like extending and strengthening the runway, replacing a 15-year-old fire truck and 30+-year-old backup generator for airfield lighting, and getting designs for the runway extension and lighting system. Officials hope that the implementation of this plan will move up current improvements from 2030 to 2026.
Aviators interested in adding their name to the growing waiting list for hanger space should contact Airport Real Estate Manager Tyler Brown at (870) 774-2171 or email tyler.brown@txkairport.com.
