Earlier today, Port of South Louisiana Executive Director Paul Aucoin and Airport Director Vincent Caire, along with members of the Board of Commissioners, commemorated the official opening of the first transient hangar (1) at Port of South Louisiana Executive Regional Airport, expanding services at the aero center in Reserve, Louisiana. Designed by NY Associates, Inc. and constructed by Justin J. Reeves, LLC, the 6,363 square-foot hangar has the capacity to accommodate a variety of large corporate and business aircraft, which are utilizing the Executive Regional Airport in Reserve on a more frequent basis.
“The commemoration of the new hangar demonstrates Port of South Louisiana’s commitment to making the Executive Regional Airport a full-service airport,” said Executive Director Paul Aucoin. “The new hangar, along with our other improvements, allows us to be very competitive and we will continue to make additional improvements to attract more aircraft.”
More than 40 guests attended the event that culminated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony, including St. John the Baptist Parish President Natalie Robottom and Assessor Lucien Gauff as well FAA and LA DOTD representatives, and resident industry leaders.
"Today we celebrate Port of South Louisiana's growing contribution to our state, national and the global economies," said DOTD Assistant Secretary for Policy Chance McNeely, who served as the guest speaker during the event. "This project is a demonstration of how investing in multimodal infrastructure pays off. We are proud of the Port's efforts and our many years of partnership."
The self-funded $739,000 project began construction in the summer of 2016. KAPS’ newest addition will allow the airport to better serve the needs of general aviation and corporate aircraft. “It’s the first hangar constructed on the airfield that is operated by the Port of South Louisiana, which is why it is affectionately referred to as ‘Hangar 1.’ Others on the field are privately owned.” said Vincent Caire, Airport Director.
Hangar 1 is just one of many planned improvements and additions for the airport since Port of South Louisiana acquired it in the summer of 2009. Since then, its runway was extended to 5,150 feet complete with a parallel taxiway and new lighting and AWOS systems. KAPS features the same services and amenities that selective passengers and flight crews would expect to find when traveling through any FBO. Customer service and line service crew is trained to cater to the needs of customers. The airport offers Jet-A and AvGas fuel plus its FBO features a service lobby, conference room, pilot lounge, coffee bar, kitchen/catering area, rental cars and crew cars.
KAPS hosted several fly-ins and community events throughout 2017 including a community breakfast celebrating St. John the Baptist Parish IEDC’s National Economic Development Week (May); a Pilots N Paws fly-in during which pilots volunteered to provide transportation of homeless animals to potential forever homes across the country (June); the Andouille Festival fly-in in conjunction with an FAA safety seminar [Note: the Andouille festival fly-in also attracted local television news program WGNO’s News with a Twist, who came out to film a segment about the local fair and KAPS] (October); plus the First Annual St. John the Baptist Parish Aviation Awareness Day (May), an educational outing for the community, especially children, to learn about flying and aviation. On November 4, there will be a Pilots for Patients fly-in to provide air transportation to people with medical conditions to out-of-town medical facilities at no cost.
About the Port of South Louisiana
The Port of South Louisiana is a 54-mile port district on the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, encompassing the parishes of St. Charles, St. John and St. James. The facilities located within the port’s district consistently handle over a quarter billion short tons of cargo annually, ranking it the largest tonnage port district in the Western Hemisphere (and the 16th largest in the world), the nation’s greatest grain exporter, and one of the major energy transfer ports in the United States. Along the 108 miles of deep-water frontage on both banks of the river there are seven grain transfer facilities, four major oil refineries, 11 petrochemical manufacturing facilities and several other facilities for a total of more than 50 docks owned and operated by an impressive group of resident tenants such as ADM, ArcelorMittal, Dow, Cargill, DuPont, Marathon, Shell, Nucor Steel, Occidental, Valero, and Occidental Chemical. To learn more, visit us at www.portsl.com, like us on Facebook, and follow us on LinkedIn.
