At a luncheon meeting Monday, the authority told the Board of Commissioners that financial assistance would be needed during the golf championship period in June.
“The U.S. Open is the biggest thing on our plate right now — after getting an airline,” said Authority Chairman Don Delauter. “The airport is truly going to be a gateway to the Open and to Moore County.”
Delauter reported that the Federal Aviation Adminis-tration would install a temporary tower at the airport as an additional safety measure especially for the Open. The airport will also provide a hospitality station during the tournament.
Estimated cost of these measures is $23,000. Delauter said the authority would turn to the county and to Pinehurst for assistance. After all, he said, these services will benefit both the county as a whole and Pinehurst.
“That’s a big chunk of money to come out of our pocket right now,” Delauter said.
Airport Manager Ron Maness said the airport also serves as the county’s “gateway to economic development.”
Maness explained that every CEO and other big company official coming to Moore County for the Open would be flying in, not driving. What they see at the Moore County Airport will be their first impression of the community, he said.
“I want everybody who comes through that gateway to say `Wow, what a great place!’” Maness said.
The airport manager predicted that fuel sales would triple during the one week of the Open. This is a major source of income for the airport.
“The U.S. Open will be an incredible challenge,” Maness said.
Maness said that all employees will be working around the clock that week to make sure visitors receive the best service possible.
The airport has 30 employees, 14 of whom are full time. Maness praised his staff for the quality of their service.
All employees wear uniforms.
“They’ve all got smiles on their faces and are treating customers the way they should be treated,” Maness said.
In preparation for the Open, Maness said he looked at ways to improve the airport’s image and came up with ideas. In addition to uniforms for employees, the airport has redone the telephone system and made some changes in vendors, among other improvements.
During the period that the special FAA tower is in use, the airport will be hosting 12 controllers called in for service that week. Maness told of his difficulty finding lodging for the visiting controllers because most facilities in this immediate area are booked months in advance of the Open. He lucked up and found a block of rooms newly available in Laurinburg because of an unexpected cancellation.
Securing Passenger Service
Maness said he recognizes that securing airline service is a critical need and added that he is optimistic about a prospect.
Finding an airline is difficult in these “economically challenging times” for the airline industry, he said, noting that some major companies have entered into bankruptcy, fuel costs are high and other economic obstacles are out there.
He praised the work of the airline task force that has been struggling to find a suitable passenger service for Moore County for almost two years.
The need here is for an airline in a network, which can pick up and deliver passengers to a large airport, where passengers can walk to a counter and easily pick up tickets, then board a plane for the final destination, Maness said.
What won’t work if an airline is too small to carry company officials and all their golf paraphernalia and could land at an outlying terminal, remote from the principal terminals, creating long delays, he said.
Maness said the task force has had conversations with a major, as yet unidentified, company and said he is “guardedly optimistic” about the prospects. The local group met with company officials last week and an answer should be available within two weeks.
“We will not leave a stone unturned,” he said.
Maness told of steps to double Moore County’s participation in the federal grant program involving five other small airports in North Carolina. He has asked that agency to provide equitable representation for Moore County, which has pledged more than half of the local up-front money as incentive for the grant and the airline. Maness said he was promised that Moore County would be in a priority position. That pledge is in the form of in-house incentives offered by the authority, such as reduced fees, and in pledges of customers from tourism sources.
‘Brand New Runway’
Maness praised Steve Bright, consulting engineer, for his work in drawing FAA grant money to the airport. As a result of one grant, the airport has “a brand new runway.” He further reported that the contractor, S.T. Wooten, recently received a major award for the work at the airport.
Bright is a principal in the Talbert and Bright firm of Wilmington and has served as the airport’s consulting engineer for many years.
The FAA has agreed to cover the cost of relocating N.C. 22 in order to improve the vertical and horizontal guidance needed for pilots landing and taking off from the airport.
Typical FAA grants cover 90 percent of the cost and the county and the state share the remaining cost. In the case of the highway relocation project, the county’s cost will be 2.5 percent.
The airport rents hangar space for 80 aircraft and could rent additional hangars if they were available, Maness said.
Hangar rental is a good source of income for the airport, bringing in monthly payments of $150 to $200 per plane, depending on hangar space available. More hangars would boost that revenue, Maness said.
Aircraft owners pay property taxes in Moore County and generate sales taxes, as well as paying rent to the airport.
Optimistic About Future
Harold Garner, an authority member and former chairman, called Maness the best airport manager the authority has had and said he is doing “a fantastic job.”
“We will get an airline. We can’t say when, but we will get an airline. I believe the time is near,” Garner said.
Garner credited Bright with making all these improvements happen.
“We are becoming a first class operation,” Garner said.
Bright said that economic development is what drives airport operations and reported that corporate business has increased, largely because CEOs and other top company officials won’t take time to travel by other means.
The county commissioners hosted the joint meeting, held over lunch served in the Agriculture Center in Carthage. Delauter and Maness thanked the county for the invitation and admitted that they were planning a similar joint meeting but the county beat them to the draw.
