Federal Aviation Administration officials “seem supportive” of Yeager Airport’s long-range plan to add 1,000-foot safety areas at each end of its runway, requiring an incursion into neighboring Coonskin Park, according to airport director Nick Keller.

The plan to develop 1,000-foot runway safety areas (RSAs), considered standard safety features for commercial airports by the FAA, was included in a master plan update for the airport competed late last year. In addition to building the RSAs, the master plan called for adding about 200 feet to the runway’s length to provide a 7,000-foot-long surface — considered optimal for the type of aircraft now using the airport.

In March, West Virginia’s full congressional delegation sent a letter to FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson expressing support for the project. The delegation also requested that an environmental assessment, rather than a more in-depth environmental impact statement, be used as the next step in moving the project forward, to save time and money.

Since then, “the FAA has determined that due to the scale of the project, an environmental impact study would be more appropriate than an [environmental assessment],” Keller said Wednesday after a meeting of Yeager’s governing board. “This option will provide a more thorough review, as well as avoid delays caused by starting work on an environmental assessment only to find out later that an environmental impact statement was needed.

Keller said a request for proposals to complete an environmental impact statement could be sent out as early as this fall, with work on the study beginning next spring. The FAA would pay 90% of its cost.

“I do see this project going forward,” Keller told board members.

Meanwhile, the numbers of passengers and commercial flights at the Charleston airport have modestly improved during May, following a 93% decline in April, following the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’ve gone from having only 10 or 15 passengers a day flying out of here last month to 155 boardings a day last week,” Keller said. “Of course, before the coronavirus, we handled 700 to 800 passengers a day.”

The downturn in air travelers prompted the Yeager board on Wednesday to allow airlines serving the airport to defer payment of fixed rents and landing fees until the first quarter of next fiscal year.

Currently, Yeager offers only two daily flights to Charlotte via American Airlines, one daily Delta flight to Atlanta, three flights a week to Chicago on United Airlines and one flight a week to Orlando on Spirit Airlines. In July, American will add two more daily departures to Charlotte, and Spirit will resume its seasonal service to Myrtle Beach on Thursdays and Sundays through Sept. 6.

“We hope to see Spirit add more flights to Orlando to its schedule, once the amusement parks and other popular attractions there reopen,” Keller said. “I think we’ll see passenger numbers continue to increase through the summer.”

On Wednesday, aircraft landing at Yeager included two U.S. Air Force A-10 Thunderbolt II aircraft from an Air National Guard base in Maryland, making “hot refueling” stops at the airport’s Capital Jet Services while training in the area.

Reach Rick Steelhammer at

[email protected], 304-348-5169 or follow

@rsteelhammer on Twitter.

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