More than $10 million in infrastructure improvements are planned at Hampton Roads Executive Airport (KPVG) in Virginia, including a 36,000-square-foot hangar complex.
The new hangar complex is part of the third phase of improvements to the airport, which are designed to “enhance access and opportunities to pilots, students, passengers, and inventors involved in the aviation community in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” according to officials with Virginia Aviation Association, which owns the airport.
With Phase III in the works, the FAA, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and Virginia Aviation Associates have invested more than $60 million in the airport over the last 25 years, officials added.
Other planned improvements at KPVG include enhancements to its entrance, apron, and hangar facilities, as well as building an additional fuel farm to help prepare the airport for the transition to alternative fuels, including unleaded avgas and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
“Along with our new fuel farm, we currently have a private electric airplane charging station and are planning to install public electric charging stations for use by transitioning East Coast electric airplanes and helicopters, as well as a hydrogen production plant, to provide several fuel alternatives for the emerging Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) aircraft,” said Steven I. Fox, managing partner of Virginia Aviation Associates. “We are on the cusp of real innovation in providing fuel for the new aircraft platforms being funded and invented at an exciting and frenzied pace.”
Since its acquisition of the airport in 2000, Virginia Aviation Associates has installed a new 5,350-foot runway, a new terminal, new taxiways, and runway lighting, an elevated rotating beacon, self-serve fueling stations, security perimeter fencing, security cameras, an aircraft washing station, weather station, and a 40,000-square-foot air freight/warehouse facility, officials said.
“Our vision of converting Hampton Roads Executive Airport’s 80-year-old barnstormer airfield into a modern executive regional transportation hub continues with this next phase of development,” Fox said.
For more information: FlyPVG.com
The KPVG facilities are great and I do look forward to seeing all the improvements spelled out here. That said, besides subsidies from the government, it’s really the airport tenants that are footing this bill. Hangar rent has skyrocketed over the last few years and this is evidenced by lot of aircraft owners and maintenance businesses (especially for piston GA) moving out to neighboring Suffolk, Franklin, or even Currituck. The avgas price at KPVG is one of the highest for an untowered airport in the entire coastal VA area. I remember when the airport bustled with activity – banner towing, flight training, warbirds, Reno racers, weekend warriors … and they all convened at the Blue Skies Grille (the airport restaurant) and it was a really fun time which unfortunately is a gradually fading memory at this point.
I truly love this airport and I do really appreciate the vast improvements to the airport facilities (the airplane wash station is amazing, so is the pilot’s lounge at Hangar 10) that the airport has invested in over the years. Notwithstanding, it is concerning to see all these improvements come at the cost of pricing out a lot of the people and businesses that originally had constituted the soul and spirit of this place. I’d agree that moving up to a business model that caters to high-dollar business jets (no irony in that on account of the airport’s name) makes sound business sense, but I do see the overall state of General Aviation headed in an earthbound trajectory in light of such trends across the nation.
Although I no longer live in the area, I was a part of that airport heyday in the 1970’s. My Dad owned 3 aircraft based there, I worked there 1970-76 in operations, and learned to fly there. I was a part of that airport from 1958 at age 5 for my first airplane ride, until I left employment there in 1976. It was a fun time like you said. So much flight instruction happening in the 1970’s. There could be as many as 8 aircraft in the pattern on any given Saturday or Sunday afternoon. Those were the Golden Years for Chesapeake-Portsmouth Airport. Those years have faded away. A new generation has been installed. I have a recurring dream about my home airport because I spent soooo much time there. My hope is that the funding and support provided for airport improvements will be used wisely for the benefit of all pilots… not just the elite business executives.
Just checked Airnav and I do not see Mogas on this airport, a low-cost, lead-free aviation fuel approved by the FAA nearly a half century ago. It is the preferred fuel for all new-generation piston engines, along with Jet-A and diesel for new compression-ignition (Diesel) aircraft engines. So why is this airport wasting precious tax dollars on electric charging stations and hydrogen, two very old technologies that are DOA for aviation? No wonder this country is in decline.