Most Surrounding Communities Backing Out

Central Texas aircraft owners who've been waiting years for hangar space will apparently have to wait a little longer. The Central Texas Airport proposal is in trouble.

Hangar space and aircraft services have been at a premium deep in the heart of Texas, since the closure of both Robert Mueller Airport and Austin Executive Airpark. That leaves pilots in the lurch.

"I was on the waiting list for two years to get this hangar," said GA pilot Mike Thompson, who finally got a covered space at Taylor Municipal. Taylor was interviewed by Time Warner Cable's News 8 Austin.

Of course, he could have rented space at Austin-Bergstrom International. But he says he would have paid dearly for that. Space at ABIA, he said, is scarce. Other pilots, like Jack Lenox.

"It could create traffic flow problems sometimes and that sort of thing -- general aviation -- smaller planes would prefer to fly out of a smaller field," Lenox said.

But local governments in the area apparently don't want to spend the money on a GA airport. The towns of Hutto and Manor have pulled out of the project. Taylor pulled out last month. The Texas Department of Transportation says, without a site, it can't secure $60 million in construction grants from the FAA to start the project.

FMI: www.dot.state.tx.us/AVN/avninfo.htm