May 15--Despite the aviation department's escalating debt, Miami-Dade is proceeding with a $14 million plan to extend a runway at Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport from 5,000 to 7,350 feet.
Aviation officials say the small airport still won't handle commercial flights -- passenger or cargo -- despite having a runway that could handle large planes.
The extension, they say, is to allow fully-loaded corporate jets such as the Gulfstream V to fly nonstop to the West Coast.
The runway plan is far from certain, and the aviation department is still seeking funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The second of two required public hearings on the extension's environmental impact will be today at 6 p.m. at the West Kendall Regional Library, 10201 Hammocks Blvd.
The aviation department is trying to better use its two large general aviation airports -- Opa-locka and Kendall-Tamiami -- and improve their finances. The airports today lose money and are subsidized by MIA, which is struggling to pay for its own construction program.
"There are larger aircraft that we could bring in here with a longer runway," said Diana Echeverry, who works for CR Aviation, which repairs aircraft at Kendall-Tamiami. "We have had to turn down business because we can't accept some kinds of planes."
The aviation department doesn't collect landing fees at its general aviation airports. Instead, it collects rent from businesses catering to aircraft.
It also taxes fuel consumed at the airport.
Kendall-Tamiami's takeoffs and landings have fallen slightly from 191,600 in 2000 to 183,307 in 2005.
Sunil Harman, director of the county's aviation planning division, said the runway could be finished at the end of 2009 if everything goes according to schedule.
Runway 9R-27L would be extended in both directions.
Homeowners fought a similar extension in the 1980s, but last year, the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations supported the current extension plan.
