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The long-awaited master plan update for the Hilton Head Island Airport has landed, and for the first time, extending the runway looks like a real possibility.
Serious talk about the future of the airport has largely been on hold for two years awaiting the results of the first comprehensive assessment of the airport in a decade. Now that report has laid out a few options for the future of the airport that call for extending the runway from the current 4,300 feet to 5,400 feet.
The longer runway will allow larger planes to use the facility, and avoid fears that the current smaller planes flown by US Airways Express onto the island will someday go out of service.
Consultants Talbert & Bright have been working on the plan for two years and produced recommendations that call for extending the runway in two phases. The first would bring it to 5,000 feet and the second would extend it to 5,400, but would require relocating Beach City Road.
The consultants say the plan meets the long-term aviation needs for the airport while still staying almost entirely on airport property. The plan also would avoid having to relocate St. James Baptist Church, a native-islander congregation at the foot of the runway where fears about airport expansion run high.
