Mayor Ron Nirenberg expects a new committee of business, aviation, and tourism experts to help gather and analyze data that will help City officials determine the best course for enhancing air transportation in San Antonio now and in the long term.
The panel will study whether – and how – to enhance the current international airport, as well as consider the feasibility of an additional regional airport.
“We’ve made significant progress over the last several years,” Nirenberg told the Rivard Report Wednesday. “But air service in the future for San Antonio will be a critical backbone to our transportation system [and] our economy.”
Nirenberg said he is reaching out to people he wants to tap for the committee, but declined to say who is on his roster. The mayor appointed Denim Group Principal John Dickson to lead the effort.
“In my estimation, where [the airport] is today is a strategic competitive advantage for the city of San Antonio, and we are making investments in it,” Nirenberg said. “We want to make sure where those investments are over the next 50 years is driven by data.”
The committee will recommend whether the best course ahead means expanding the existing airport or constructing a new one, Nirenberg said. The committee’s focus on air service is part of a larger examination by City and County officials of San Antonio’s overall transportation system. Nirenberg said he believes the committee may produce findings and recommendations in six months. (It begins its work in January.)
Dickson, a cybersecurity expert, business executive, and former U.S. Air Force officer, said he welcomed the opportunity to help map the future of air transportation in San Antonio.
“The idea here, the big idea, is to really take a deep look at what we have, compare ourselves to others, and think of the opportunities in the next 50 years,” Dickson said. “Where is the entire industry going to be?”
He sees the committee’s mission as a chance to get past the “grumbling” over the airport’s weaknesses. San Antonio International Airport’s lack of direct and nonstop flights to many major national and international destinations is often cited as a restraint to business growth.
Nirenberg believes that acquiring nonstop flights to major airports such as Reagan International in Washington, D.C., or Heathrow in London, depends on having a workforce that creates a market for those flights. He and other local officials have seen that momentum in the acquisition of direct flights from San Antonio to and from Philadelphia and Mexico City.
A frequent flyer both domestically and internationally, Dickson said San Antonio’s airport has advantages to build on that other cities do not: its central location to downtown and other major business corridors; its relatively new Terminal B, which opened in 2010; and its close proximity to rental car services once the new parking garage, with its skybridge, is completed and opens next spring.
There’s room to expand at the current airport, said San Antonio Aviation Director Russ Handy. Learning about the committee was “fantastic news,” he said, and he hopes it will work in sync with his department’s strategic planning efforts for the airport.
“Expansion of our airport system capacity is inevitable,” Handy said. “Not a matter of if, but when, how, and how large.”
The San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce praised the mayor’s plan to create the committee and singled out Dickson as a capable leader.
“Mayor Nirenberg has accurately determined that for our city to compete globally, it demands a world class international airport to bring us forward to the point where other great cities already are,” said Ramiro Cavazos, the Hispanic Chamber’s president and chief executive officer.
San Antonio Economic Development Foundation President and CEO Jenna Saucedo-Herrera said the committee’s formation comes at an ideal point in time.
“As momentum continues to build for the San Antonio International Airport with 17 new routes added in the last 18 months alone, it is an ideal time to review our airport’s long-term growth plans to ensure continued success that will best benefit our San Antonio community and the broader region.”
San Antonio cannot get service to London or anywhere else in Europe until it expands its runway. That’s a fact. The market will likely support that flight within the next 10 years (if not already) – San Antonio is one of the largest markets without European service. The only airliner that can fly that route economically is the Dreamliner, and it needs about 1000 more feet of runway to take off fully loaded.
For the most part, the lack of domestic routes is a function of lack of demand. But for Europe, even if there is demand, the airport, with its current runways, cannot meet it. Thus, Austin will remain the airport of choice for European carriers serving Central Texas, and draw away traffic from SAT.
With idle gates and room to build Terminal C, the airport is centrally located, easy to use, and remains well below capacity. There is no need for a new airport, especially an outlying one. There is a need to expand the runways.
I agree. I researched runway needs for the Dreamliner when it came out because it was designed to be economically efficient with fewer passengers. First priority should be to study what has to be done, no matter how expensive including no matter what has to be removed or closed down, to get at least one runway at the present location long enough to handle Dreamliners in a safe way (not just the minimum length).
So do the 747’s there do vertical take off and landing? That runway’s 8500 feet long. It can land any plane flying today (although probably couldn’t disembark passengers with current jetways).
San Antonio will always be a second tier city and unable to attract large desirable corporations (i.e., Amazon, to provide good jobs and increase our tax base) until it has a world class airport. We have already lost one of our few major corporations (AT&T) because of our inadequate airport. The city needs to pass a bond issue to improve runways and guarantee airlines that they will subsidize flights until the demand catches up. We will never have large corporations competing to come to SA until there are more direct domestic flights and international flights. Once again, we have not seized the moment and are losing out to Austin.
Central Texas is saturated with air travel options. This drive to waste money on the airport doesn’t make much sense to me.
We’re a city with a huge crime problem, an empty downtown, and not enough skilled workers. Certainly, those are more important problems to address.
I HATE linking to MYSA (apologies Rivard Report) but this columnist hits every point: http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/josh_brodesky/article/Relax-San-Antonio-airport-is-just-fine-10802949.php
Interesting that the blurb about Commissioner Wolff’s optimistic view on high-speed rail was imbedded within the article. We’ve been talking about that for years. Both San Antonio snd Austin have invested in airport infrastructure, and a San Antonio/Austin regional airport is not a feasible option. Increasing the ideal current location is the best plan, but we should connect the two airports, and their downtowns, with high-speed rail, with brief stops in Schertz, New Braunfels, San Marcos, and Buda areas.
Less cost, quicker completion time, and meets a long-standing need, to get vehicles off of I-35.