Airport Poised for Takeoff
When golf superstar Tiger Woods came to McKinney, his
private jet landed at
Collin County Regional Airport.
He is just one of
the many celebrities and corporate officials whose first glimpse of
the city came from the air.
“It’s easy to see what kind of impact our airport has when corporate
executives land here to do business in Dallas. They like what they
see in McKinney and return to do business in our city,” says David
Pitstick, President of the McKinney Economic Development
Corporation.
For example,
he says one reason McKinney was chosen as the site of one of the
first two green Walmarts in the country was in part because of the
site’s proximity to the airport.
“They wanted
their executives to fly in from all over the country to show off
their innovative project, and our airport enabled them to have easy
access to the site,” Pitstick says.
 Owned by
the City of McKinney, the nationally recognized general aviation
airport has built a niche by catering to corporate clients through
amenities like charter service, and recent innovations are paving
the way for an even brighter future.
The airport
has been a powerful engine for the local economy, employing 75
people and — when combined with its tenants — generating an
estimated $80 million in economic impact and $3.2 million in
certified tax revenue.
Last year, the
airport completed a new taxi lane, fuel farm expansion, a perimeter
access road to access the fuel farm and security improvements.
Pitstick says
the newly expanded Airport Drive from Highway 380 to Industrial
Boulevard eases transportation to and from the airport and opens the
area to development.
Airport
Executive Director Ken Wiegand says the airport has long-term leases
with corporate tenants such as EDS, owned by Hewlett-Packard, which
is based in San Jose, Calif.
 To prepare for
additional growth, the airport recently broke ground on a
replacement runway and began getting ready for a new air-traffic
control tower. Both are part of a $57 million capital improvement
plan designed to meet the growing needs of the airport and funded by
a joint effort by the Federal Aviation Administration, the Texas
Department of Transportation, the City of McKinney and the McKinney
Economic Development Corporation.
The new runway
will accommodate aircraft with wingspans of more than 100 feet, such
as the Boeing 737, to safely taxi and take-off, Wiegand says.
To learn more about the Collin County Regional
Airport, visit
www.flymckinney.com.
As published in The Dallas Morning News
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