Passengers Are Singing the Praises of San Angelo's New Airport Terminal
Air travelers to and from San Angelo are getting the royal treatment now‚ thanks to a new airport terminal opened in early 2007.
“It’s a tremendous improvement for the community‚” says Al Elliott‚ chief of operations at San Angelo Regional Airport.
Expanded by 8‚000 square feet‚ the terminal can comfortably handle 250 people – compared to the modest 35 that fit in the old terminal. It also has three boarding gates‚ two of them with passenger boarding bridges or jetways.
“That makes it a lot more appealing for passengers‚” says Clint Dockery‚ station manager for American Eagle Airlines‚ which – along with Continental Connection – provides connecting service to Dallas and Houston.
“We have unpredictable weather here‚ and when the wind picked up or it was raining‚ we used to have to issue umbrellas or just wait until it quit raining‚” Dockery says. “Now‚ with the jetways‚ we’re always ready to go.”
A third boarding gate at the ground-floor level handles the occasional flights diverted from Dallas or other locations due to inclement weather‚ as well as one or two charter flights per month for gambling trips to Nevada.
The only escalators currently operating in San Angelo take passengers to and from street level‚ where the security screening and baggage claim areas are located. The first-floor lobby also has a restaurant and snack bar‚ with food good enough to attract people from the community. And here’s a shocker: You can park at this airport for free.
“I feel strongly that if you don’t have free parking‚ the people from town won’t come. I think it’s a nice benefit for our terminal tenants to have those people coming out to eat here as return customers‚” Elliott says.
Leases from the restaurants help the airport maintain its self-sufficient status‚ which is required under the terms of federal grants it receives. The airport also receives revenues from other vendors‚ hangar leases‚ landing fees‚ fuel flowage fees and passenger facility charges. Although owned by the city‚ the airport costs local taxpayers virtually nothing.
San Angelo’s first settlers‚ who came by horseback‚ two major stagecoach lines and later by railroad‚ couldn’t have imagined airplanes and airports. The airport has a colorful history‚ according to Suzanne Campbell‚ head of the West Texas collection of the Porter Henderson Library at Angelo State University.
Campbell says that oilman Carl Cromwell and his flying service‚ Cromwell Airlines‚ helped back construction of the original airport‚ south of its present location‚ in 1929. Not coincidentally‚ the region had its first oil gusher that same year‚ and planes were instrumental in getting equipment and personnel to the oil fields.
The city completed a new airport in 1941‚ just in time to turn it over to the military for World War II when‚ as Goodfellow Air Force Base‚ it served a vital function in the training of bombardiers. One of them was a San Angelo native named Jack Mathis‚ who would become the war’s first aviator to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.
San Angelo Regional Airport is also known as Mathis Field‚ in honor of his heroics in leading a successful bombing mission despite mortal wounds from an anti-aircraft cannon shell.
Today’s San Angelo airport covers some 1‚500 acres and boasts an 8‚000-foot runway‚ long enough to accommodate an 840‚000-pound C-5 Galaxy military cargo jet. Goodfellow Air Force Base remains as a training center for military intelligence and firefighting.
Elliott says the airport has space available for businesses that would benefit from being close to an airport‚ as well as being precisely halfway between the southern east and west coasts of the United States.
