The Foothills Regional Airport is a business that often does not receive much attention in Burke County, but its economic and recreational contribution to the community is greater than many people realize.
Managed by a unique partnership of Burke County, the City of Morganton, Caldwell County, and the City of Lenoir, Foothills Airport prides itself on meeting the needs of business and recreational travelers, aircraft owners, aviation pilots, and those interested in all things aviation.
It provides important services like hangar space, aircraft maintenance, full service Avgas and Jet-A, a pilots lounge, flight instruction, and more.
Known in aviation lexicon as a licensed fixed-base operator (FBO) the single-runway facility straddles the Burke and Catawba county lines. Passers-by can see the recreational and business aircraft taking off and landing at the airport, located at 3566 Morganton Lenoir Airport Ave. off Hwy. 18 North.
Their economic and community impact
Airport Administrator Brent Brinkley has been with the airport for more than 20 years. His aviation career began back in 2001 as a lineman for Avtec Services.
The way he sees it, the airport has a tremendous economic impact on the county.
“I feel like the airport is a huge driving factor of this local economic engine. It plays a lot of roles with new businesses coming to the area. We play a big support role in those businesses once they come here. We play a big role for tourism,” Brinkley said.
Many CEO’s fly in and use the services. You can find many new and old businesses with planes and passengers coming in and out of the airport.
Brinkley said there are around 44 operations —take offs and landings — daily. Summer is their busiest traffic season. He counted 82 operations for Friday, Sept. 1. In 2022, the airport had a total of 16,000 operations.
Aside from helping businesses, the airport plays a big role in local search and rescue operations.
“If there’s major forest fires or something like that, we can serve as a base for all the firefighting equipment, helicopters, and the aircraft that are involved in that,” Brinkley said.
When needed, the airport can lend a hand to law enforcement as well. With the carjacking manhunt that happened on Sept. 5-6, the airport supported the N.C. State Highway Patrol by taking care of the fuel for their helicopters.
“Their airport is partly funded by Burke County. We just want you to know that we’re here and we’re supporting the local economy. When they see some of their local tax money going to the airport, it’s going to good use,” Brinkley said.
The Foothills Regional Airport Authority
The Foothills Regional Airport Authority board has elected officials from Burke and Caldwell County and from Morganton and Lenoir. There are four appointed officials from each county.
Officials from Burke County and the City of Morganton are: Butch McSwain, Bob Pruett, Tommy Fraley, and Randy Burns.
Officials from Caldwell County and the City of Lenoir are: Chairman Joe Gibbons, Vice Chairman Jeff Branch, Charles Thomas, and Bruce Roberts. The other board members are attorney Louis Vinay, accountant Norm Sherwood, and Brinkley.
On staff, there is assistant airport manager Derek Brown, and line personnel Jerffrey Stainback and Jessie Williams.
Meetings of the board are held monthly on the last Wednesday of each month at noon with a complimentary lunch. The invitation is extended to the public so all are welcomed to attend.
When you walk into the meeting, there is constant chatting and never a dull moment. No one there is afraid to come up to introduce themselves and shake your hand.
Their last meeting took place on Aug. 30 in the Foothills Regional Airport terminal.
Parallel Taxiway
Within the next year or so, there will be construction for building part of a new parallel taxiway. The total cost is estimated to be $9.5 million to build a portion of this taxiway instead of the full length of it.
Engineer Pat Turner reported that they are “proceeding with a limited footprint” and they don’t know the exact timing of this project yet because of funding.
The funding will most likely be coming from the state funds and the project could fit within that budget. The airport is also waiting to hear back on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) funding.
“Everything else is in place. Our plan is to have all the plans finished and all the approvals done by the end of the year so we can build it right after the first of the year,” Brown said.
New T-Hangar project
The airport is looking to expand storage for aircraft by building a new t-hangar. A hangar is a building to hold aircraft.
With the amount of aircraft that come through the airport, adding more storage will bring in more people and revenue. When Brown talked about the FBO report for the month, he mentioned how full the hangar storage currently is.
“We’re still seeing really high numbers in all of our hangar options. Still adding names to our waiting list, almost weekly. I do have 76 names on the waiting list. That does include home-based customers,” Brown said.
The total cost of the project is around $1.8 million. There are three potential sources of funding according to Brown: state grants, VIO funding, and FAA funding.
State funding would offer an annual $150,000 if granted for up to four years. That would be around $667,000 which is closed to their estimated base bid of $700,000. This is just for site preparation.
They still have the paving portion for the building and the construction of the building.
“There’s another source of funding called VIO which is a bipartisan infrastructure fund that could go towards the t-hangars. We think there would still be some money needed to do the paving and maybe some ancillary costs that need to be taken into account,” Brown said.
They are also looking into FAA funding. Brown said they are hoping that by the first of the next year, they will have funding secured. By the end of this year, they will see if there is any other funding they can go after.
The board has decided to move forward with the project and start the bidding process.
Other updates
Ashley Bolick, Caldwell’s economic development director, said her team is currently working on an airport marketing feasibility study. The draft is being discussed with local managers. An update meeting with the economic development advisory committee on Sept. 12 at 8:30 a.m.
The airport's maintenance hangar lease renewal will have a new rate change to $625 per month. The current rate is $550, but Brinkley said that after looking at other airports, he recommended raising the rate.
This will go into effect on Sept. 1, 2024. The other change to the lease is clarification of who is responsible for the maintenance of the building.
You can contact the Foothills Regional Airport by calling 828-757-0099 or by emailing fbo@foothillsairport.com.
Visit them from Monday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Saydie Bean is a reporter for The Paper. She may be reached at 828-445-8595 or via email at saydie@thepaper.media.
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