Prattville Airport Receives 1st AEROready Certification in Alabama

PRATTVILLE — Economic development efforts in Prattville and Autauga County are taking flight.

Prattville Airport-Grouby Field is the first airport in the state to receive AEROready certification. It is a site designation for airports with at least 10 acres of land available for economic development, supporting navigation aids for corporate aircraft and a minimum 5,000-foot long runway. Prattville's airport has a single runway 5,400 feet long meaning it can take the largest of corporate jets.

"AEROready certified communities, regions or sites reduce risks for potential aerospace companies to locate in the certified areas," the AEROready website reads. "Our certification validates the community/region is ready for an aerospace industry, that there is ample supply of labor and quality sites, opportunities to customize the training of labor, and the utility and transportation infrastructure is in place."

There are 50 clusters of aerospace industries across the nation, said Tuscon Roberts, of AEROready. The company has surveyed 40 counties nationwide as part of the certification process, with some having large and others having smaller airports, he said. The designation means Prattville can go after aerospace jobs.

"Prattville's airport is as good as any of them," Roberts said. "We are doing the aerospace industry's homework for them. An airport is a large capital investment in the community that can be a job generator, if you want it to be. And aerospace jobs pay about half again to twice as much as the general manufacturing jobs."

Prattville's airport was built in 1970. A framed May, 14, 1970 copy of the Prattville Progress newspaper hangs in the terminal. A front page story reads that the county paid $37,998.30 to the Yarbrough Estate for the land where the airport is now. That breaks down to about $690 per acre of the 55.7 acres.

The AEROready report gives suggestions for making the airport more attractive to business, including purchasing more land and providing sewer service to the site.

Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Marty Roney at [email protected].

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