Recently, I received a report from a pilot friend of mine about the importance of airport infrastructure to the economic development of Beaufort County.  A majority of the residents of Beaufort County and Hilton Head Island realize that it is very important that we keep our air service in and out of Hilton Head Island, but a lot of our residents and visitors alike do not know that our current mayor and Town Council does not feel that our airport is an important asset to our residents or economy and economic development.  This year, our mayor and Town Council passed an amendment to the LMO (Land Management Ordinance) which does not allow for our airport runway to be extended. Situated on 118 acres with a runway of 4,300 feet long and 100 feet wide, Hilton Head Airport supports the business and residential community of Hilton Head and Bluffton, as well as the island’s valuable tourist industry.  It is home to one Fixed Base Operator (FBO) – Signature Flight Support- and serves as a base for Angel Flight South Southeast.  Hilton Head Airport cannot accommodate mid-size or larger commercial jets or the more modern, but actively used, corporate charter jets, all of which require a runway length of at least 5,000 feet from a safety and insurance perspective.  Fractional ownership aircraft such as those offered by NetJets are becoming increasingly popular, but runway length and insurance requirements restrict their ability to utilize our Hilton Head Airport.

I have been very supportive of our Airport and in the need to expand our runway so that we can accommodate both commercial and private aircraft.  Last week, I had an experience which brought it very close to home and  made it clear that we are loosing business not only from a commercial standpoint and loosing revenue generated by Airline Property Taxes (Over Flight Fees, fuel taxes, and property taxes levied on based aircraft to name a few, but it is costing us in real estate business as well.  A very popular and successful music recording star called to make appointments to see several properties, some of which our company had listed.  Needless to say, we were excited that this star would choose our island to invest in a multi-million property.  Once he found out that he could not land his jet here and had to fly in and out of Savannah Airport, he decided against investing in Hilton Head Island.  There are many resort/residential areas up and down the coast that do have local airports that can accommodate his jet.

I hope that as some of the commercial aircraft currently coming into our airport is phased out and replaced with more efficient aircraft, that we will not be left in the cold because these new aircraft cannot land at our airport because our Town government refused to lengthen our runway to accommodate these planes.  I love the convenience of flying in and out of Hilton Head and am happy to pay a little more for the privilege!  I think that almost anyone would prefer flying into Hilton Head Island than into Savannah and then fighting the traffic on I-95 and HWY 278 to get to our island paradise.  The Airport Owners and Pilots Association state that it is not just Fortune 500 companies that use private aircraft for business- so do tens of thousands of small and medium sized businesses.  I want these business owners to choose Hilton Head Island for business and play!  Hopefully, with different political leaders on Hilton Head Island in our future, we will be able to change the LMO again to allow runway expansion.  Not only is it for safety and convenience, but the overall health of business and our community.