Panama City's New Airport Important for Tourism

Panama City Beach, Fla. --- It will be either a major boon or a boondoggle, depending on who's talking.

But one thing is certain --- a proposed new Panama City-Bay County International Airport could within two years change how metro Atlantans think about getting to the sugar-white sands of the Florida Panhandle.

"Atlanta is a major market for northwest Florida," said Bob Warren, executive director of the Bay County Tourist Development Council. "This airport will give us a much more affordable and convenient regional air service for people from Atlanta and other areas trying to get here in a timely manner."

The Panhandle beaches, from St. George Island and Mexico Beach in the east to Panama City Beach and Destin in the west, count metro Atlanta as the major engine for their tourism and real estate booms in recent years. Atlantans account for about 21 percent of the 4.1 million people a year who visit just Panama City Beach, Warren said. And the numbers are similar for the neighboring shores of Walton and Okaloosa counties.

"Atlanta considers us their beach," Warren said.

Some environmentalists have blasted the proposed airport, and the sprawl it could create, as a potential ecological disaster. Many local pilots oppose relocating the airport, which they contend is more than adequate. But opponents admit they are fighting an uphill battle to stop the new facility, which has lined up funding and cleared all but one major regulatory hurdle.

Most beach visitors now drive the six hours from Atlanta instead of battling the limited flight schedule, small aircraft and expensive tickets associated with the airport, whose main runway is sandwiched between a bay and sprawling suburban development. The airport was built in the 1930s, and its terminal was updated about 10 years ago. About 400,000 passengers use the airport annually, with those from the Atlanta area --- about 25,000 a year --- comprising the largest segment.

Rob Schnatmeier, a Marietta lawyer, said he makes the drive to Panama City Beach to stay at a family beach house several times a year. Schnatmeier said he flew into the airport last year on a one-way ticket to meet his wife, Allison, who had driven down with their two children. He found the small, commuter flight uncomfortable and the airport inconveniently located.

A new airport, closer to the beach and with cheaper flights aboard larger planes, could attract his business, he said.

"It would cut travel time big-time," he said. "We'd probably go down more often if there were cheaper flights. Right now, it's just too far to drive for a weekend trip."

Marietta resident Ashley Riley and her husband, Michael, vacation with their children on Seagrove Beach just west of Panama City Beach.

"If it were just the two of us going for the weekend, we might look at a flight," she said. "But if we had to take the kids, we'd still drive."

Supporters and opponents of the proposed $300 million airport agree that service into the existing airport, off Florida Highway 390, far from the beaches, is limited and expensive. But they concur on little else.

"We are the highest-priced airport of the 19 commercially serviced airports in Florida," airport director Randy Curtis said. "We just don't have the room to improve at this location. We've had airlines that want to come into the area but can't because of the restrictions they face at this site."

Curtis said the airport's runways don't meet federal standards --- the runway safety, or overrun, area on the bayside of the primary runway should be 900 feet, but is only 59 feet, he said.

Backers of the new airport say it will permit the landing of larger aircraft and spur competition, resulting in cheaper fares. They have spent $40 million on plans for the new facility, and they hope to break ground this year.

But opponents contend no evidence supports that a new airport will bring more passengers or lower fares. They have dubbed the proposed facility the "Airport to Nowhere" and have filed a lawsuit in federal court, arguing the Federal Aviation Administration erred when it approved the plan. FAA approval clears the airport to receive federal dollars. It would be funded with federal, state and local money.

Fred Werner, a semiretired pharmacist, has organized about 100 Panama City-area pilots into a group called "Friends of PFN" --- using the designation for the Panama City airport --- who opposed the new airport.

The airport has about 12 commercial flights per day, Werner said. And he argues that building a bright new facility closer to the beaches will not drive up those numbers. Werner also points to a nonbinding 2004 referendum in which residents gave the new airport a thumbs down in a 56-44 percent vote.

"This is not about need," said Werner, who keeps his twin-engine Cessna 421 in a hangar at the airport. "What this is about is political power and money."

Opponents have focused much of their wrath on airport backer the St. Joe Co., a timber-turned-development company that owns about 800,000 acres of land in the Panhandle, an area about the size of Rhode Island. St. Joe owns 53 percent of the land in Bay County.

St. Joe argues the new airport will be good for the company and the people who live and vacation in the area.

"Anything you do in Bay County will benefit us," St. Joe spokesman Jerry Ray said. "But our interests are aligned with the county and the people who live there."

St. Joe, which has developed much of the tony beach property in Walton County, has donated 4,000 acres for the new airport in a woodlands area about 10 miles north of the beaches, between Florida highways 77 and 79. The company has also donated about 9,600 acres for wetland and habitat protection.

Detractors argue St. Joe's generosity will be repaid many times over as the company develops thousands of acres of land near the airport. That potential off-beach sprawl just north of what is locally known as West Bay has raised the hackles of two environmental groups, who, along with Werner's organization, have filed suit in federal court to try to block the new facility.

Melanie Shepherdson, an attorney with the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council --- which is taking the lead in court --- said the airport could endanger thousands of acres of pristine wilderness.

She pointed out that a search for the ivory-billed woodpecker is under way about 30 miles from planned airport.

"This region is one of the most biologically diverse in the country," Shepherdson said. "It's not just the footprint of the new airport, but the development it will spur and what will happen to the existing airport site."

Opponents hope to prevail in court or to nix a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit needed for airport construction to begin. Werner said his side has no intention of backing down "even though we know we are a bunch of Davids facing a Goliath."

Supporters, meanwhile, said they are confident jets will be landing at a new facility, continuing to fuel the area's growth and helping fill the new high-rise condominiums that have replaced the mom-and-pop hotels along Panama City Beach.

About 8,000 condominium units have been added along that beach since 2005, Warren said, and 15,000 more or so are planned.

"We anticipate the new airport opening in 2009," Curtis said. "Building it is the easy part. The hard part is working through all the red tape and bureaucracy."

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