Ector County Airport Advisory Board Chairman Mark Merritt sipped his coffee while watching airplanes land and takeoff at Schlemeyer Airport while detailing he estimates the price tag to finish all airport improvements at $50 million.
Merritt noted that a majority of that wish list — $45 million — would be spent on asphalt replacement.
Schlemeyer Airport isn’t getting a $50 million ticket to complete all renovations, however, airport officials hope a chunk of those funds ($15 million) will come during the 88th Texas Legislative Session for improvement projects.
“I know $15 million is a lot of money, but our dream list is probably about $50 million,” Merritt said. “When you start looking that we have over 3 million square feet of asphalt, it primarily all needs to be replaced.”
Merritt said he has been part of the airport board since 2015.
He said he’s seen the airport grow during that time. Merritt also said more than 90% of the flights are business. Personal use is a little less than 10% as Merritt explained there are two different flight schools at Schlemeyer one for planes and one for helicopters.
“You have people coming in for mapping, pipeline patrols, gas sniffing and medical,” Merritt said. “A lot of medical flights are coming in from Fort Stockton, Pecos and surround areas that need to bring patients here. The patients that can’t be handled here they get moved to Lubbock, Dallas or Houston.”
However, Merritt said the easiest way to see that growth is fuel sales. Merritt said fuel sales in 2015 were around 350,000 gallons and that number has nearly doubled to about 700,000 in 2022.
The hope that Merritt has for Schlemeyer Airport is to hit 1 million gallons in fuel sales within the next five years.
Merritt said most of the airport funds come from grants from the FAA that flows through the Texas Department of Transportation. Merritt noted the FAA doesn’t want the airport to rely on grants.
To remedy that situation and reduce the number of FAA grants, Merritt said airport contracts are scheduled to be renegotiated in 2024. Merritt believes with a better contract the airport can cover its annual expenditures and also save a little money for renovations.
“The airport generates revenue,” Merritt said. “One of the grand assurances is that revenue generated on the airport is used on the airport. You can’t put in the general operations budget. It has to stay on the airport.”
If the $15 million for improvements project is approved during the 88th Texas Legislative Session, Merritt said the item on the checklist would be new runway lighting. Merritt estimated the total cost to fix the lighting could be $1 million to $2 million.
Merritt said next on the checklist is upgrading low graded asphalt areas. Merritt believes with the remaining $10-plus million for improvement projects the airport’s overall grade can reach a B grade.
“Before we can do the asphalt, we have lighting (runway lights, approach lights, taxi-way lights),” Merritt said. “They haven’t been maintained to the standard that we need to keep the airport safe. That’s the first thing right off the top.”
Merritt also squashed the worry about Schlemeyer turning into a freight hub.
The cost to transform Schlemeyer into a freight hub would be about $100 million, which Merritt said he believes isn’t economically feasible. Merritt said he maintains the airport needs to get better not bigger.
“It’s not really an option,” he said about Schlemeyer transforming to a freight hub. “That was a thought at one time. After you start looking at what all is involved to make that happen, it’s like a lot of business ideas that you get in that it sounds good at first then reality sets in.”
