The view from Corinne Nystrom's office window at Mesa's Falcon Field can be deceiving.
"It seems like a sleepy little airport to a lot of people," Nystrom said.
That's quite a misperception for one of the nation's busiest general aviation airports, where the average number of landings and takeoffs a year is almost half the number of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport's.
Over the past five years, Falcon Field has averaged 271,766 annual landings and takeoffs, compared with the more than 560,000 at Sky Harbor.
"A lot of people fly in to Falcon Field to do business and then leave," said Nystrom, who took the post of airport director in July.
Nystrom is recruiting more businesses to locate around the northeast Mesa airport's two runways. It's all part of the transition from former World War II pilot-training airfield to an airport serving corporate aircraft, with a focus on more aviation-related businesses, sales-tax revenue and the buying power of well-paying jobs.
"The increasing costs of flying with fuel prices and rising insurance rates are becoming prohibitive for the little guy," Nystrom said. "We're seeing recreational fliers not flying anymore and more multiple ownerships of small aircraft to share costs."
Those skyrocketing costs account for some of the decline in landings and takeoffs since 2002, when Falcon Field posted 288,717 operations, its highest.
But Nystrom and city officials say the future of the airport at Greenfield and McKellips roads looks better than ever with more than 10,000 square feet of new business and hangar space and dozens of acres of vacant ground enticing additional tenants. Nystrom wouldn't identify any of them but said she and Claudia Whitehead, the city's new economic development program manager for the airport, have met with 75 prospective tenants in recent weeks.
The airport's soaring potential helped lure Nystrom, 51, to Mesa from Grand Junction, Colo., where she managed a municipal airport with commercial regional passenger service and general aviation.
Within five years, Falcon Field should be producing enough revenue to keep the airport's operations in the black, she said. She was hired for $88,000.
The airport brought in $134,000 less than its operation budget of $1.2 million for the fiscal year that ended June 30.
"If you were to include the federal and state grants the airport received, you could say we came out $491,000 in the black," Nystrom said.
"But those grants are for big capital projects, and we can't use that money to operate the airport. We're trying to run it like a business, and we feel we need to pay our own way.
"Any way you look at it, this airport's in pretty good shape."
But an executive of one of the airport's major businesses said it will be difficult for Falcon Field to attract another big client such as Boeing or M-D Helicopters.
"The runway, at 5,600 feet, is not long enough to get the corporate business that Scottsdale and Deer Valley airports get," said Edward Allen, president and general manager of Marsh Aviation, which rebuilds aircraft under government contracts. "There will be some new businesses, but the airport will mostly remain a parking place for a guy that has his own airplane."
Corinne Nystrom
Job: Director, Falcon Field Airport in Mesa.
Education: Bachelor of science, business management/transportation management from the University of Colorado.
Experience: Manager, Walker Field airport, Grand Junction, Colo., for nine years. Member, Colorado Aeronautical Board, which is responsible for statewide aviation development.
Age: 51.
Hometown: Grand Junction, Colo.
Family: Divorced, two children.
Hobby: Ranching on family spread near Mesa, Colo.
CAPTION: Corrine Nystrom is the new airport director at Falcon Field in Mesa. The prospects of the airport, where the average number of landings and takeoffs a year is almost half that of Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport's, helped lure her from Colorado.
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