Ready for takeoff: Granbury Regional Airport unveils new runway

After almost a decade of planning, the Granbury Regional Airport expansion project is nearing completion, and the new runway was officially ready for takeoff as of Nov. 3.

As part of a $32 million expansion project — in which half the cost was paid through a grant from the Texas Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division — the new runway is 5,200 feet long and 75 feet wide, running parallel to the west side of Loop 567.

Measuring 1,600 feet longer than the original airstrip, the new runway is located farther west, providing a greater level of safety to nearby Granbury High School and Lake Granbury Medical Center, while also accommodating virtually all business-type jets.

“The new 5,200 runway gives us access to a completely new type of aircraft, which in this case is a business jet fleet of airplanes that will now have the ability to come to Granbury with their customers, buy gas, bring people in and out, and not have any problem at all getting in and out of our facility,” Pat Stewart, director of aviation at Granbury Regional Airport, said in a YouTube video discussing the new runway published by the city of Granbury.

The original 3,603 foot airstrip — which was the shortest among similar airports around the western Dallas-Fort Worth area — will soon be turned into a taxiway.

Chuck Licata, broadcast specialist for the city of Granbury, said a plus for the regional airport is that the airport is already self-sufficient and doesn’t require funding from the city to stay functioning.

"For the past two or three years — excluding the funding for the new runway project — our current runway and airport has paid its own way, meaning we make enough money in fuel sales and hangar rent to pay the bills here and all the employees,” Stewart said in the YouTube video. “Personally, it’s very important. There are very few municipal-type airports around the state of Texas that can do that and through our city leadership, we’ve worked really hard on that, and we’ve had that done in the last two or three years.”

According to the city’s Airport Master Plan, which is a strategy for the airport’s development through 2040, the estimated economic impact could generate millions of dollars in revenue around Hood County, with a five percent increase of visitors, an additional 922 jobs created over a 20-year period and an estimated 3.94 billion earned in economic impact over the next 20 years.

“This is a big day for Granbury,” City Manager Chris Coffman said during the city’s runway ribbon cutting celebration on Nov. 3. “We have been talking about this for a long time.”

Coffman thanked Stewart for doing a “tremendous job” serving as the project manager for the city on the airport expansion project and recognized former members of the Granbury City Council who played a role in jumpstarting the project back in 2013.

Former Mayor Nin Hulett also thanked the former city council members.

“Those people had the vision; they started this thing out,” he said. “When I first got on the council, I took Lisa Johnson’s spot, and she told me ‘Do not let that airport get away from you, Nin,’ but I didn't know what that took. This airport, the vision that they had is what it would do for Granbury, what it would bring to Granbury — and that's happening right now, before we even got the runway completed — but it's gonna bring economic development. One of our biggest tools out here is tourism, and it's going to bring more people to Granbury, but it's also going to bring some businesses out here. I've talked to many businesses who’ve said, ‘We'd love to come to Granbury, but you don't have an airport to bring our VIPs in here,' and we have that now. It's a quality of life for this community to have a super airport like this — and it's not done yet — but I'm so blessed to be a part of it.”

"This is one of those occasions where you come late to the party, and it’s a wonderful party because of the people who put it all together,” said Jim Jarratt, mayor of Granbury. “This is a great moment for Hood County.”

Granbury Regional Airport’s Advisory Board Chairman Jackie Vaughn commented that 20 years ago, the facility was called “just an airport,” and was mainly used by aviation enthusiasts.

“Today it has grown into a vital part of our city's economic growth potential for the future,” Vaughn said. “It is now commonly known throughout North Texas and Oklahoma as the ‘best small airport in Texas,’ and the reason for that is customer service; it's second to none.”

Vaughn also took the time to thank Stewart for his dedication to expanding the airport.

“We've seen you work on a day-to-day basis, and what you've done has surely been an amazing feat of managerial magic," he added. "To the city of Granbury, thank you for allowing this board to be a part of today's history and tomorrow's future.”

Coffman closed the ribbon cutting celebration by saying that the “best little airport in Texas” will soon bring growth to Hood County.

"I grew up in West Texas up in the panhandle, and I'm kind of an ag guy, so I understand agriculture,” Coffman said. “What the city and state has done with this project, it's like planting a wheat crop. We're gonna water it, we're gonna watch it produce a harvest for our community and we're planting seeds for the next generations.”

As for updates on the project, Stewart added that the city is currently "out for bid” on a new terminal building. In regarding the 15-year master plan for the airport expansion project, he said Granbury is closer to year five than year one due to the influx of people coming to Hood County.

"We have people that are going to build lots of hangars, like there's a company involved in building 60-feet hangars here. We've got about 78 today, so if you can imagine the 60-feet hangars full of airplanes buying fuel, you can just see the economic impact just with that,” Stewart added.

He said another company is wanting to build a bigger hangar next to the new terminal building.

“They want to bring a charter airline to Granbury, Texas,” he said. “No contracts have been signed, we're still in the due diligence discussions, but I can tell you it's a very promising opportunity."

In the next couple of weeks, Stewart said the city will be able to decide on which bid to accept for the new terminal building.

He added, "What we have is a huge amount of interest — it's happening.”