MIDLAND, Texas — Midland City Council members are contemplating moving the Midland Airpark to the Midland International Air and Space Port.
Moving the airpark to a different location is something that has been tossed around since the 60s, but now it just might happen.
Although, no official decisions have been made.
Right now, council members are gathering information on what it would take to move the airpark.
“The first time the City of Midland inquired about the opportunity to potentially move the Midland Airpark to the main airport was in the 70s I believe," Lori Blong, Midland City Council, District 4 said. "So that conversation has been revisited every decade since then.”
According to Blong, about six months ago a letter was sent to the Federal Aviation Administration about what it would take to move that park elsewhere.
Why?
Well, the airpark sits on prime acreage, inside the loop and close to downtown.
According to Arrington Oil and Gas, there is lots of untapped black gold below.
“Yes, would it be excellent to have A Street opened up all the way to the Loop, I think all of us would agree how that would be very convenient for Midlanders," Blong said. "It’d be great to have all that developable real estate, but we also have to look at what the cost is for our community.”
As far as cost, moving the airpark would not be cheap.
Sources who work closely with the airpark estimate it would cost at least $100 million dollars to move hangers and meet certain flying regulations.
“I think there are certain council members who are extremely interested in seeing this move forward and then there are others of us, myself included, who want more information," Blong said. "I have not fully developed an opinion.”
Council members could not give the media a rough idea of the cost because as of now, moving the airpark is just a conversation.
“We’re going to keep having the conversation and see what works best for the city, see what works best for us and air travel, it’s going to be an ongoing long conversation as it has been for 50 years," Patrick Payton, Midland mayor said. "If we come to a resolution or a change it will be because of the discussions we had.”
NewsWest 9 spoke with multiple private pilots who work at the airpark. They tell us moving to the Midland International Air and Space Port would not be a smart decision for safety reasons, since so many new pilots train at the airpark.
The idea of moving the airpark to another location, without a commercial air and space port, seemed to make more sense to them.
The mayor tells us if the airpark moves it would only move to the Midland International Air and Space Port, nowhere else.