Saturday, December 12, 2015

Business at Hawthorne Municipal Airport (KHHR) finally takes flight



Business is booming at Hawthorne’s small municipal airport, where for the first time in recent history the future looks bright.

A group of passionate aviation fans, private developers and city officials have been breathing life into the 80-acre site for years, investing heavily in new hangars, a modernized runway and upgraded facilities.

Their work is paying off.

Traffic is way up, and the first new commercial hangars in 50 years just opened late last week to house a new fleet of luxury charter aircraft. The two steel hangars, with a combined 40,000 square feet, also will be used to host events. They cost roughly $5 million to build.

“We’ve put a significant amount of capital to improve the airport,” said Levi Stockton, president of Advanced Air charter service and Jet Center Los Angeles, the airport’s service provider.

“We’ve built 100,000 square feet of new hangar space in the last 10 years. That brought more planes, and our charter flight company really started to take off.”

The new hangars are a substantial investment but the timing for the gamble seems perfect. All signs point to a lucrative future for the once-blighted 80-acre airfield.

Ongoing construction at Los Angeles International Airport promises to divert overflow traffic to the Hawthorne airfield for at least the next year. Earlier this year, the Federal Aviation Administration approved longer hours — until 10 p.m. — at Hawthorne’s air-traffic control tower to accommodate planes diverted from LAX.

Meanwhile, airports in Torrance and Santa Monica have snubbed new business because it comes with increased noise and pollution concerns for the surrounding dense communities. Santa Monica officials hope to close their airport soon, and CalAir flight school left Torrance last year for Hawthorne after it was hit with restrictive noise regulations.

Traffic at the airport in Santa Monica is substantially down this year, while Torrance’s air traffic has remained at about 125,000 flights for each of the past four years. But, in Hawthorne, traffic is up from about 57,000 flights in 2010 to 90,000 in 2014. It’s on track to match last year’s numbers in 2015 as well.

A series of fortuitous events improved business at Hawthorne airport since it was left to decay through the 1990s and nearly shut down in 2001. Though the recession created a major hindrance for development, and political battles over access to the crowded Los Angeles skies temporarily held back the airport’s growth, things began turning around after it got a massive makeover in 2007.

Developers rebuilt the airport lobby to include amenities like a theater room and lounge while the city’s public works director, Arnie Shadbehr, secured a $5 million FAA grant to fund the 2007 work, which included a newly asphalted runway, new lighting and other overdue safety upgrades.

In 2008, Elon Musk’s rocket development company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. or SpaceX, moved next door to the airport along Crenshaw Boulevard and 120th Street. Proximity to the growing world-class rocket builder and a Tesla design studio brightened the spotlight on the airport. Musk often flies his Falcon jet there, as does well-known investor T. Boone Pickens.

Airport developers also hope that the National Football League’s plans to locate teams in Los Angeles next year will increase traffic. Carson and Inglewood are eagerly awaiting an announcement whether the NFL will allow a new stadium in Inglewood or Carson.

Four flight schools, each with a different niche, now operate at Hawthorne Municipal Airport. Advanced Air’s charter fleet service has grown from one aircraft in 2009 to six planes today. Surf Air, a growing airline that charters flights between private airports, opened a hub there in 2013.

Mayor Alex Vargas praised the new hangars and growing business at the airport, as the city struggles to rid itself of a debilitating structural budget deficit.

“The Hawthorne airport is central to our economic growth as a city,” Vargas said. “It’s a source of pride.”

Pat Carey, owner of the airport’s Beach Cities Aviation Academy and a local aviation expert who has been a strong supporter of the facility, said he has switched his focus from increasing business to keeping a lid on aircraft noise. Modern technology has made planes quieter, which will help as traffic increases, he said.

“We have so much demand for aircraft parking and fueling. Our traffic count is up 40 percent in the last two years,” Carey said. “The big push now is to keep the noise under control. We track every airplane that sets off resident complaints.”

Source:  http://www.dailybreeze.com

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