Former Hondo Air Base Charts a New Course
Published Mar 05, 2009
An airplane waits on the runway at Hondo Municipal Airport. Hondo officials plan to make the former military air base the centerpiece of their economic development plans and create a large-scale air, rail and truck logistics/distribution park.
With retirements grounding many of America’s commercial pilots, the folks who operate Wright Flyers Academy say there has never been a better time to earn your wings.
The Alamo Area flight school is certainly getting ready to fill the void, planning a major international academy at Hondo Municipal Airport, 30 miles west of San Antonio.
By 2013, the school should feature more than 40 planes, 200 students and 42,000 square feet of hanger space.
The anticipated $7 million investment is just one of the ways the former Air Force field is awakening from decades of slumber to become a major force for economic development.
Hondo officials are marketing the airport’s space, capacity and inter-connectedness as a future Port San Antonio, the industrial-and-transportation giant that likewise rose from an old military base.
“Our object over the next 10 to 20 years is to turn into a small version of Port San Antonio,” says Tim Fousse, Hondo’s airport manager. “We are the next best option.”
Like Port San Antonio, Hondo is accessible by a variety of transportation modes. It’s a stone’s throw from Texas Highway 173. It offers direct rail access serviced by the Union Pacific Railroad and Burlington Northern/Santa Fe railroads. And it has five runways.
“Not too many people are walking around with five runways and three of them over 6,000 feet,” Fousse says.
And the airport has 1,400 acres of commercial and industrial property.
But for decades, the facility was marked by untapped potential, with not even a consistent fuel supply – a situation Fousse likens to running a hotel without beds.
Local and state officials have focused on reviving the sprawling facility with millions of dollars in capital improvements. A new spur brings rail service closer; a $640,000 terminal greets pilots who can fill up at a $220,000, 24-hour fueling station; and the main runway is scheduled for a $7.7 million resurfacing in 2009.
“It says the city is serious about being in the aviation business,” Fousse says.
Rand Goldstein, the president of Wright Flyers, says the number of runways, the room for growth and the supportive community coupled with ideal weather made Hondo a perfect location for expanding.
Besides Wright Flyers, Air Evac Lifeteam, a national air ambulance service based in Missouri, has opened a Hondo base to serve hospitals and communities within a 70-mile radius.
The business is expected to add $1.3 million to the tax base and 13 jobs.
And that’s just the beginning, says Fousse, who expects the number of general aviation aircraft berthed at the airport to double within five years.
Story by Sam Scott
Photo by Todd Bennett
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