Native Son

Pieter Miller has been named the new deputy executive director of the Salina, Kansas Airport Authority. Mr. Miller will work under longtime executive director Tim Rogers.

Miller stated: “My dad was an aviation enthusiast. I spent a lot of time at the Salina airport. I grew up trying to bum rides from local pilots. I was willing to wash their airplanes if they would give me a ride.”

Miller’s plan worked—on occasion.

A certificated Private Pilot, Miller served 14-years as the manager of Hutchinson, Kansas’s Hutchinson Regional Airport (HUT).

“Hutchinson is where my house is, and Salina is where my home is,” Miller remarked, adding: “I’m happy to be coming back.”

Miller is scheduled to commence executing the duties of his new position on 02 October 2023.

Salina Airport Authority executive director Tim Rogers set forth: “Pieter’s skill set is unique and necessary for the amount of new construction and development that is scheduled to occur at the Salina Regional Airport (SLN) and Industrial Center. It’s a busy place and there is a lot going on at one time.”

Projects upon which the Salina Airport Authority intends to imminently embark include:

• Construction of a 58,000-square-foot, $41-million studio and learning facility dubbed the K-Aires Center—an acronym denoting Kansas Advanced Immersive Research for Emerging Systems. The airport authority will lease the K-Aires center to the State of Kansas.
• Construction of multiple 98,000-square-foot Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) hangars on SLN’s north ramp.
• Establishment—by dint of a $3.325-million state grant and in cooperation with the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, Salina Community Economic Development Organization, K-State Salina, and Salina Area Technical College—of an Aviation Innovation and Maintenance Center for purpose of recruiting and training aviation maintenance technicians.
• Facilitation of projected near-future increases in air-traffic via the undertaking of a $7.5-million rehabilitation of SLN’s crosswind runway and a $12-million expansion of the airport’s M.J. Kennedy Air Terminal.
• Guiding the remedial action phase of a $70-million cleanup of the site of the DOD’s former Schilling Air Force Base.

“Pieter will assume a major role in these projects,” Mr. Rogers asserted. “He will also lead new airport and airport industrial growth initiatives."

Miller explained: “I have been involved in Hutch [Hutchinson] with landfill and environmental cleanup projects and I’m becoming familiar with issues at the Schilling Project. I really haven’t had to deal with scheduled air service here. There’s certainly a learning curve, but I’ll be working with Salina’s air service consultant Gary Foss to help me get up to speed.”

FMI: www.salinaairport.com