Alabama’s beaches will have an “interim” airport available for commercial flights by March 1, 2023, the airport authority announced Wednesday.
A big question looms: Which carrier will be offering flights, and to where?
“It’s a wild state of affairs right now but the biggest growth (for commercial aviation) right now is leisure markets,” Scott Fuller, director of the Gulf Shores International Airport, Jack Edwards Field said to AL.com on Thursday. “That’s what they are selling. We’re an ideal market for low-cost carriers and they have to put them somewhere.”
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Fuller said he hopes the opening of a 12,000-square-foot modular terminal will fuel interest in Gulf Shores.
“We are telling the airlines we will be ready by March 1,” he said.
The Gulf Shores Airport Authority, the governing agency of the airport that is located north of the Intercoastal Waterway off Alabama Route 59, signed an agreement with Atlanta-based Tbi Airport Management and VINCI Airports for the construction of a new commercial air terminal.
The project involves a two-phased approach with an estimated $3.7 million initial investment going toward the construction of an interim terminal. It will include electronic kiosks, ticket counters, and enough space for TSA screeners, a holding room and restrooms.
A baggage claim area will be covered but located outdoors.
“We are going back to the 1940s where you have to walk out to your airplane and climb in,” Fuller said.
Airport officials have high hopes of building a permanent, two-gate terminal that will replace the modular structure. Previous estimates pegged that project at $24 million, and Tbi and VINCI Airports are charged with the operations and construction of the new facility.
VINCI is one of the world’s leading private airport operators with more than 50 airports in 11 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas.
“With the level of interest and existing demand, we do not plan to be in the interim for long,” Fuller said.
Fuller has said it could take several years to build a permanent facility.
“The only reason to address interim facilities is to accommodate traffic now and not wait for a two-year design and construction project to be completed,” he said.
But are the airlines coming?
Fuller has said that two airlines – Sun Country, which provides flights to Minneapolis, and Elite Airways, which offers flights to Nashville – are slated to provide flights from Gulf Shores.
He said that talks are ongoing with a larger carrier, and announcements were expected this summer. That has not happened yet, and Fuller said he believes the construction of a facility will attract a commercial carrier.
“It’s very hard to lure someone in here when you don’t have a facility,” Fuller said. He said that airlines will announce “four months out” before they begin providing service in a market.
He said he was “cautiously optimistic” about a carrier operating from Gulf Shores by the March 1 opening date.
A groundbreaking on the modular facility could take place in late October.
Gulf Shores airport officials are pursuing commercial flights to assist city officials in alleviating congested beachbound roadways, especially Route 59.
Related: What pandemic? Alabama’s booming beaches set new tourism records this summer
Studies show that almost all visitors to Gulf Shores and Orange Beach arrive by vehicle. Of the approximately 7 million people who visited the beaches in 2018 and 2019, a whopping 92% arrived by car or truck during peak summer travel months.
Officials believe Gulf Shores could be an attractive site for commercial flights and believe the future airport can operate with similar traffic as Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, which is located 18 miles north of Panama City.
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