San Marcos Regional Airport Sees Record Busy 2022

Feb. 26—From the perch on top of the air traffic control tower, the San Marcos Regional Airport is a sprawling, busy network of runways, construction activity, hangars and maintenance facilities.

A Cessna 172 Skyhawk, flown by a student at one of the airport's many flight schools, wobbles back and forth slightly as it approaches the runway and eventually lands. Nearby, a Learjet business plane rests outside a maintenance hangar. A line of single-engine aircraft forms on a taxiway, waiting to be cleared for takeoff on this windy February day.

André Murphy, the air traffic control tower manager who has been with the San Marcos airport since 2014, has had a literal bird's-eye view of the explosive growth the facility has experienced in the past decade. He says the airport has become increasingly popular with flight schools, which has bolstered the facility's reputation and contributed to the busiest year on record for the WWII-era airport.

"Once the word got out about this place, it just didn't stop," he said.

The San Marcos Regional Airport had its busiest year on record in 2022, logging more than 91,000 operations — that's takeoffs and landings — for the year. Its busiest month was September, with more than 10,000 operations in that month alone.

That's about 250 takeoffs and landings each day, according to Jim Wimberly, the president of Texas Aviation Partners, which is the private firm contracted by the city of San Marcos to operate the airport.

Having a private contractor run a city airport is an unusual arrangement in terms of airport operations in the state of Texas — most airports, like San Antonio and Austin, for instance, are operated by their respective cities.

But TAP entered into an agreement with the city almost 13 years ago to take over the airport and help get it out of a financial hole, which it has.

"Cities do a lot of things well, like traditional city responsibilities" of fire, police, and roads, said Wimberly, a former Southwest Airlines chief operating officer of more than 20 years. "But they don't always have the expertise to operate airports."

The San Marcos Regional Airport doesn't have any scheduled passenger airliners. You won't go there to catch your Southwest flight to Hawaii or your Delta airbus to Walt Disney World.

You would go there if you live in Central Texas and are interested in learning how to become a pilot, though. A host of flight schools call the airport home, training the next generation of commercial and private aviators to help fill the nationwide pilot shortage.

The airport also hosts a fleet of private corporate jets, cargo operations and commercial aviation centers. At least 240 airplanes of varying shapes and sizes call the airport home at any given time.

"There's more corporate activity, more flight training, and, frankly, more aircraft and businesses based here than there were four years ago," Wimberly said.

The San Marcos airport is also home to Berry Aviation, a fixed base operator that essentially acts as a convenience store or pit stop for planes that are passing through on their way to other destinations and need to refuel, get maintenance, restock catering or other services. Berry also has a charter fleet and military contracts and has one of the largest presences at the airport.

Importantly, the San Marcos Regional Airport is also the designated overflow air strip for when the Austin or San Antonio airports get too busy or otherwise can't handle the traffic. That doesn't happen often — it most recently happened a few years ago when Austin's air traffic control tower flooded.

The airport also acts as an overflow parking lot for when there isn't enough hangar space in Austin or San Antonio.

"It happens routinely with the Circuit of the Americas races (in Austin)," Wimberly said. "Bergstrom just runs out of places to park airplanes."

Wimberly attributes the growth at the San Marcos Regional Airport to the growth of San Marcos itself, and to the increasing popularity of the I-35 corridor as a business and industrial destination. There are simply more businesses, more people coming to Central Texas, and more companies that want to be based in San Marcos, which the San Marcos airport has grown — and will continue to grow — to accommodate.

The airport routinely applies for and receives grants and other funding from the city of San Marcos, the state of Texas, the federal government and the Texas Department of Transportation for improvement projects and construction. The Federal Aviation Administration, for example, awarded the city of San Marcos a $5.2 million grant for reconstruction of a taxiway that will provide aircraft parking areas to three runways.

The city and TAP still have their work cut out for them, though. San Marcos is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon — at least 1.9 million people live within a 25 mile radius of the airport, a figure that made Wimberly's "jaw drop" when he heard it.

He said the airport's growth correlates almost identically with the region's rapid expansion. At 1400 acres, the airport still has room to expand, and eventually will look to strengthen the pavement of its runways to be able to accommodate larger commercial airliners.

"There are no constraints for the next 20 years on building additional facilities" due to the acreage and available land, he said, adding that it's important to balance the airport's growth with things like public need, parking and infrastructure. "The growth is coming, and we're prepared for it."

Annie Blanks writes for the Express-News through Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms. ReportforAmerica.org. [email protected].

___

(c)2023 the San Antonio Express-News

Visit the San Antonio Express-News at www.mysanantonio.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.