Aug. 26—Yeager Airport's governing board on Wednesday commissioned a $370,000 study designed to identify the best possible terminal building concept to meet passengers' needs in the next 30 years.

Among other topics, the study will explore whether the existing passenger terminal, which opened in 1950, should be expanded in its current location, replaced with a new building in the existing terminal's footprint, or replaced with a new building at a different site on airport property.

Landrum & Brown Inc. of Cincinnati will take into account passenger demand forecasts, flight schedule development, future gate requirements and emerging trends in technology for baggage handling, security screening and concession operations to develop up to five terminal concept options.

From those options, a single, preferred terminal concept will be identified, and a cost estimate determined for it, following consultation with Yeager officials and key airport users.

Yeager's current passenger terminal "is space-constrained and outdated," according to Landrum & Brown's proposal to conduct the study. The terminal's security checkpoint is particularly constrained, lacking the space needed to provide clearance for the installation of upgraded screening gear soon to be required by the Transportation Security Administration, according to the aviation consulting firm.

A master plan for the Charleston airport completed last year calls for relocating Taxiway A to provide 400 feet of separation between it and the airport's primary runway to improve safety. To accommodate that plan, land now occupied by several Concourse A gates would be needed.

Yeager's long-range plan to extend its runway and expand its safety overrun space, if approved, would also require a loss of gates from the concourse.

Gate layouts included in the new study would take those conflicts into account.

Also on Wednesday, representatives from Apex Appearance presented the airport board with their proposal to lease a hangar at Yeager's general aviation area to serve as the headquarters for an aircraft painting and ceramic coating business.

Apex Appearance operates a painting and protective coating business in Hurricane for cars, trucks and boats, and dispatches crews up and down the eastern U.S. to perform similar work on airplanes. Founded in 2019, the company has so far painted or coated a total of 60 airplanes.

As a mobile operation, the company handles on average three aircraft per month, but using a hangar at Yeager as a paint booth would allow the firm to paint or coat seven aircraft monthly, or 84 per year, more than doubling its business.

Currently, Apex Appearance has a staff of six employees, which would rise to 18 when the hangar is in use, and increase to an estimated 27 after two years, according to the presentation.

Yeager and Apex are in the process of negotiating a lease for an available hangar.

If Apex receives board approval for the lease, it will join PF Flyers, an aircraft and avionics repair facility that opened last month at Capital Jet Center, Yeager's general aviation operation. PF Flyers' Charleston operation is a satellite branch of the family-owned company's headquarters in Greenville, South Carolina.

Rick Steelhammer is a features reporter. He can be reached at 304-348-5169 or [email protected]. Follow @rsteelhammer on Twitter.

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