Consultants, town officials divided on lengthening airport runway

Hilton Head Island Airport could lose most of its commercial service within 20 years if it doesn't extend its runway, airport officials said Tuesday during a joint county and town council meeting to unveil the latest component of the airport's master plan.

But town officials, including Hilton Head Mayor Tom Peeples, say they won't agree to extend the runway as far as consulting firm Talbert and Bright has recommended.

The runway must be extended from its current length of 4,300 feet to 5,400 feet to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations, said the consultants, who authored the airport master plan.

New commercial planes and private aircraft flying into Hilton Head will require more space for takeoff and landing than they did 10 years ago, the consultants said.

The recommended 1,100-foot extension would push the runway beyond the current boundaries of airport property, southward toward William Hilton Parkway, north toward Port Royal Sound or a combination of both, the consultants said.

That was not what town officials wanted to hear.

"That would cut off Beach City Road. It would wipe out St. James Baptist Church," said an obviously frustrated Peeples. "1,100 feet, we cannot do."

County and town councilmen wanted to know what could be done to make the airport a more robust part of the island's economy without expanding it beyond its current boundaries.

Talbert and Bright representatives said determining alternatives is part of the next phase of the master plan, which is not scheduled to be finished until at least October.

The last master plan, completed in 2001, recommended the runway be extended to 5,020 feet. The town did not follow that recommendation and has an ordinance forbidding expansion.

Most planes flying to and from the airport are general aviation aircraft, although commercial service through USAir and Delta Airlines provide most of the airport's revenue, said county airports director Paul Andres.

USAir and Delta use noisy turboprop planes to service the island, but the consultants say those planes likely will be phased out and replaced with jets.

Andres and James Coyne, president of the National Air Transportation Association, an aviation interest group, say 1,100 more feet of runway is the way of the future.

"The economic impact of this airport is critical," Coyne said. Accessible airports boost real estate values, and the wealthy customers flying into Hilton Head on private planes circulate money through the island's economy, he said.

"Hilton Head will have a better 21st century if they have a 21st-century airport," he said.

Mayor Peeples said the recommendation was implausible if for no other reason than the many years the county would need to litigate the purchase of all the private property in the path of a longer runway.

"We need to deal with reality," he said. "I want the consultants to come up with something do-able. Soon."