Apr. 22—Two new hangars being added to Lancaster Airport this year will help the authority overseeing the airport surpass its goal of adding a new hangar each year.
Even so, the two new structures will go only part way toward addressing a "severe shortage" of hangar space.
Both will be built without the use of grants from the state Department of Transportation, the highly competitive funding source for most new hangar projects at airports across the state.
A private charter flight company, Venture Jets, is funding and constructing its own new hangar to house planes it currently stores off-site. And later this year, the airport plans to build a low-cost hangar to free up space, something the authority's Executive Director, Ed Foster, said is needed to serve the growing needs of new and existing airport tenants.
"When opportunity knocks, you open the door, or they'll go to the next door," Foster said. "That's at the next airport, so we need to address every opportunity we can."
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This week the airport authority approved bids for its self-funded 9,000-square foot hangar. The facility's $1.6 million price tag is nearly two-thirds less than the authority's last hangar project cost because it is shorter in height and won't include things like insulation, plumbing or fire sprinklers.
Hangar space shortages are not uncommon across the state. In 2022, the Governor's Aviation Advisory Committee said hangars were 90% occupied statewide, and there were more than 700 aircraft owners on waiting lists.
The new hangar is a "Band-Aid" that should reduce the number of plane owners who are subleasing space from other airport tenants, Foster said. The new hangar will be located near the Sheetz at Lititz Pike and Airport Road, one of the few sites remaining on the south side of the airport's runways.
The authority is currently working with a consultant on a 20-year development plan, which will likely include undeveloped land north of the runways, along Millport Road, which needs significant infrastructure investment.
The airport already plans to build hangars, offices, and a 200,000-square foot paved area to store planes there, just west of Venture Jets' project and a proposed Aldi grocery store at Lititz Pike and Millport Road. A water line extension required for all three facilities is being constructed this year using state grants, Foster said. The timeline for the estimated $11 million hangar complex will depend on how much more grant funding is available.
In the meantime, Venture Jets has begun site work for its 19,200-square-foot hangar. The project is back on track after being temporarily delayed last month due to a partner in the company's plane crash just outside the airport, Airport Operations Manager Austin Beiler said during Monday's meeting. A plane that Matt White was piloting for personal travel crashed into a parking lot at Brethren Village on March 9, injuring all five people on board. White and his son Judah were seriously injured. Efforts to reach the company for an update on the project were unsuccessful.
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