Extension approved

Portland Board of Aviation received approval Friday from the Federal Aviation Administration for a study justifying a runway extension at Portland Municipal Airport.
The approval clears the way for the airport to extend its runway to 5,500 feet from the current 4,000 feet in order to accommodate larger aircraft. The study, which included letters of support from area businesses, projected that the multi-million dollar project could nearly double the number of flights to the airport each year.
“That’s been my No. 1 objective for the airport … getting the runway extension. My initial reaction was joy,” said Hal Tavzel, airport manager and owner of Sonrise Aviation. “With my past experience, I’ve worked around a lot of jets, and I basically told them early on that for us to grow the airport and fully maximize it with aircraft and to be able to produce the services we had to have the extra pavement. So I’m very excited about it.”
The next step for the city will be to acquire land for the extension, which will be 90 percent funded by the FAA.

The state and city will each contribute 5 percent of the projected $2.9 million construction costs.
Portland Board of Aviation has been discussing and planning for a possible extension since 1999. Its engineering firm — Butler, Fairman and Seufert — turned in the justification study to the FAA nearly a year ago.
The FAA responded in August that it would not support the extension project, but later granted city officials a face-to-face meeting to present their case. It then requested more information in November before giving approval Friday.
“With the support of this additional information, FAA staff can now concur with a runway length of 5,500 feet for Runway 9/27,” said Michael J. Brown of the FAA’s Chicago Airports District Office in a letter emailed Friday morning to aviation board president Mike McKee. “We look forward to working with Portland of further planning and development efforts for the airport.”
Jason Clearwaters of Butler, Fairman and Seufert said he believes the in-person meeting, which included Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman and then-board president Bob Sours, was key to convincing the FAA to approve the study. He also noted support via a conference call from Panther Aviation pilot Ed Hautala, whose company is interested in bringing jets to Portland.
The aviation board proposed the extension because at its current length the runway is too short to accommodate jets except in ideal weather conditions. The “magic number” for such aircraft is 5,000 feet.
The airport averages about 20 jet operations — take offs or landings — per year. The justification study showed a potential of nearly 800 operations with a runway extension.
“We have actually had jets that have landed in perfect conditions there and at any other time they wouldn’t,” said Geesaman. “We’ve had industries that have said it would be handy instead of flying into Fort Wayne and having to rent a car and drive here, they could fly here directly.”
The closest of the state’s 99 airports that currently has a runway of 5,000 feet or longer is Delaware County Regional Airport just north of Muncie at 6,500 feet. Marion Municipal Airport and Huntington Municipal Airport have runways of 6,000 and 5,000 feet respectively.
Other airport runway lengths in the area include Randolph County Airport (Winchester) at 4,300 feet, Lakefield Airport (Celina, Ohio) at 4,400 feet, Miller Airport (Bluffton) at 2,600 feet, Darke County Airport (Versailles, Ohio) at 4,500 feet, Van Wert County Airport (Van Wert, Ohio) at 4,000 feet.
Geesaman, Tavzel and Clearwaters all touted the extension as a win for the economic development community, and Jay County Development Corporation executive director Bill Bradley agreed with that assessment.
“I think that any time you can see the expansion of a piece of infrastructure like this it’s a positive thing,” said Bradley. “It is a very positive thing to have in your arsenal when you look at attracting new companies or retaining companies you have already.”
Among the businesses that wrote letters of support were Tyson Foods, Bell Aquaculture, POET Biorefining, Stoneridge and Vogel Paint.
The next step in the process will be acquiring land for the extension and securing funding from the FAA. An environmental study will also be required before construction can begin.
“This is just the first step,” said Clearwaters. “It’s a big step, but it is the first step.
“The goal is set and approved, and we can start working on the next steps to systematically develop this airport.”