Lawton airport planning for future as it nears completion on terminal upgrade

Just because Lawton-Fort Sill Regional Airport is closing in on completion of its largest improvement project in decades doesn’t mean officials aren’t already planning for the future.

The airport’s governing board recently finalized its Federal Capital Improvements Plan, documentation the Federal Aviation Administration requires on projects deemed “federal,” meaning costs are being covered by federal dollars. Specifically, the FAA wants to know how Lawton will spend its Airport Improvement Program (AIP) funding, money designated to airports for projects that are related to safety, lighting, security and environment.

Lawton airport coupled AIP funds with the City of Lawton’s Capital Improvements Program, other grants and a revolving loan fund to cover the $15.3 million upgrade that recently let it open a new secured passenger holding area, larger TSA screening space and a covered passenger walkway. With that area now functional, focus has shifted to work in the ticketing area, TSA baggage screening area and the terminal entrance, set for completion by January.

Airport Director Barbara McNally said the airport will pay off that debt under a five-year plan, according to the CIP plan approved by the Lawton Metropolitan Area Airport Authority. The plan specifies $15,795,555 worth of work funded between 2024 and 2028. McNally said 2024 and 2025 are projected to be “very heavy years,” with a lot of money spent and reimbursed as the airport moves through the stages of its terminal modernization project.

While the bulk of the CIP plan is tied to that modernization, it does cite other projects: an update of the airport master plan ($800,000), replacement of an ARFF fire truck ($1.1 million) and a new waterline to serve the new hangar being planned ($1 million), as well as construction of the hangar itself ($1.8 million). Those projects are all cited for 2025, McNally said.

They’re also examples of the blending of funds that airport officials use to tackle major upgrades.

For example, the fire truck (along with work to change out the foam fire suppression system) is expected to come from a $3 million allocation in the Capital Improvements Program Extension that Lawton voters will decide in August. The cost of the hangar is coming from a grant already approved for Lawton by the Oklahoma Aeronautics Commission, as is the waterline work.

There had been concerns about the hangar project, McNally said of a project approved in late 2023 when the commission agreed to convey a grant covering 40 percent of the estimated $1.6 million construction cost. The project was one of several approved by the commission for airports across Oklahoma, working from funding that McNally said aeronautics “has never had before.” For Lawton, that means construction of a new hangar north of the terminal, one that will provide space for privately-owned aircraft whose owners will pay rent. And, that means Lawton will begin making money on the terminal as soon as it opens.

McNally said construction can’t begin until the new water system is installed, the reason the project was looking at a delay. The state solved that problem by agreeing the waterline qualifies for a grant.

McNally said the master plan update also is critical, explaining the existing plan hasn’t been updated since 2011.

“We’ve done all the projects in that plan,” she said, of the need to craft a new list of priorities for the next 20 years.

Some ideas already exist.

One being weighed by airport officials is buying 80 acres of school land the airport has long leased on the south end of the runway. The intent had been to lease the land to Fort Sill for a military aviation complex, but there hasn’t been any movement on that project in years. McNally said while the project isn’t dead, it has been put on the back burner and part of the issue may be land ownership.

“The Department of Defense is cautious about investing in land we don’t own,” she said, of the reason Lawton may want to buy the land.

That tract is adjacent to land already being used for industrial development, and McNally said that means it would be attractive to aviation-related businesses that want to be adjacent to a runway.