Abbeville airport has economic impact

Chris Crusta Memorial Airport has long been an asset for the city of Abbeville.
Recently, the Louisiana Aviation & Aerospace Economic Impact Study showed that the airport supports 471 jobs and contributes $62.4 million in annual economic output to the city.
Officials continue to work on the assumption that the airport can return even greater dividends to the city.
During its March 3 meeting, the Abbeville City Council heard from Chris Groh of Kutchins & Groh, an airport planning firm based in New Orleans and Lafayette. The firm has worked closely with Abbeville during the past couple of years.
“We work specifically with airports in Louisiana,” Groh said, “trying to help them develop new projects as well as maintenance and repair projects for buildings and runways.
“We help secure funding and make sure that all the red tape between the FAA and the state is all cleared up.”
Groh said earlier in the day, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) aviation presented the first part of its capital program to the state legislature’s transportation committee. Groh explained that the city will be receiving a pair of grants through that program. One will be $39,000 for the airport master plan, which will offset the FAA-mandated match.
“The other grant is expected to be $1 million to do some airfield pavement maintenance,” Groh said. “It will rehab the taxiway and the apron to keep the airport operational.”
Mayor Roslyn White said the airport is its own economic driver and should be treated as such.
“We’ve been meeting about some opportunity for growth and business around the airport,” White said. “They need to be airport adjacent. Unfortunately, we have rented a lot of properties for pennies on the dollar over the years, which kind of landlocks our airport. We are trying to free up space to allow business growth adjacent to the airport. That means better-paying jobs and a better impact on our community.
“That means more revenue coming in for the airport, so that we can continue to put money back into the airport, and grow it as its own economic driver for the city.”
Currently, businesses and industries that utilize the airport include:
• Aviation Academy of Louisiana
• JBI Helicopter Services
• Westwind
• Valour Air
• Vector Aviation
• Omega Protein
• engineering firms
• hunting and outdoor industry
“There is a lot of interest in commercial activity out there,” Groh said. “I don’t mean commercial like Delta {Airlines} or Southwest {Airlines}. I mean industrial helicopter, agriculture, and so forth.”
Groh said, while nothing is imminent, plans are being discussed to potentially facilitate that kind of commercial growth.
Plans are also in place for the Louisiana National Guard to construct a new defense readiness center near the airport.
“They are going to build up a nearly $30 million defense readiness center,” Councilman Brady Broussard Jr. said. “They will need electricity, fuel and gasoline.
“We look forward to the groundbreaking of that in the near future.”
Councilman Carlton Campbell had a request of Groh regarding what the runway could possibly look like.
“Could you find us any money to stretch the runway?” Campbell asked. “That would allow bigger plans to land.”
Groh said that would require the acquisition of more land and obtaining further FAA clearances.
“That is one of the activities that the master plan will look at,” Groh said, “and is there a justification for that. The FAA will fund runway projects; we just have to give them the right justification.”
Accommodating larger planes is not simply an issue of runway length.
“One of the common things that people think is that the length of the runway is the problem,” White said. “That is part of it, but it’s also a weight issue. The existing runway cannot support the weight of the larger planes.”
As it stands, Chris Crusta Memorial Airport is seeing plenty of activity.
“It’s one of the busier general aviation airports in the state,” Groh said. “A lot of that has to do with Omega Protein and their fish-spotting operations, but also the helicopter operations that are taking place on the north side of the airport. There is a lot of activity happening here. Talking to DOTD and LED (Louisiana Economic Development), they recognize the airport’s potential.
“It’s an exciting time.”
White agreed, adding that the city needs to capitalize on that momentum.
“I’ve always believed the airport is one of the city’s greatest assets,” White said. “This report (impact study) reinforces that with data. We need to be strategic about the future of our airport. We are looking for opportunities to help strengthen growing businesses that will increase utilization, create jobs or net healthy returns that can be reinvested in future improvements.”