It’s still not clear when airline passengers will be able to board a plane at Manassas Regional Airport and take a low-cost flight to a still-unknown destination, and on which airline — but the project is taxiing toward takeoff.
It’s been just over one year since the Manassas, Virginia, city council approved a 40-year lease agreement between the busiest general aviation airport in Virginia and Dulles Airport-based Avports.
The city and the airport operations company are juggling several aspects of converting the airport, with the primary focus on getting Federal Aviation Administration approval for commercial passenger flights.
Last summer, Avports said it planned to start by reorganizing the airport’s current 35,000-square-foot terminal building to initially operate about 10 flights per day, starting by the end of 2025.
If the first phase proves successful, the company plans to expand the terminal building to be able to fly up to 30 flights per day.
“It’s not like we flip a switch, and tomorrow there’s 30 flights ready,” said Pranav Trivedi, project executive for Avports.
Jolene Berry, assistant airport director for Manassas Regional Airport, which is owned by the City of Manassas, added: “We both have our own checklist of items that need to be accomplished before the airlines come in.”
Even before any expansion of the current terminal, to approximately five gates, many behind-the-scenes plans and practices have to meet federal standards.
For instance, Berry said the FAA is currently reviewing the airport’s submission for an Airport Certification Manual, which includes the airport’s plans for maintaining records, a snow and ice control plan, an airport emergency plan, wildlife management procedures and maintenance of aircraft rescue firefighting personnel and equipment.
The airport would need to get the Transportation Security Administration’s approval for the airport’s security plan.
“We’ve already been working with the TSA, and they’ve already done a preliminary inspection of the airport, and we’ve submitted our security plan with them,” Berry said.
“There were no red flags during the inspection, they were very complimentary of the airport itself, so we don’t see any problems with them.”
Which airlines will fly, and to what destinations?
With Dulles International Airport, Reagan National Airport, and Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport within driving distance, Trivedi said converting the Manassas airport will benefit passengers, the city, and airlines that service it, by complementing the larger airports.
“This can be a very attractive alternative, for not only passengers, with the metro area, and so many people who live in a proximate distance of Manassas, but also commercial airlines, who otherwise want to serve the D.C. area, but do not have capacity available to them at any of those three airports,” said Trivedi.
Berry said Avports approached the city with the expansion idea: “We thought this was a great opportunity to bring in airline service, and the focus is on ultra-low-cost carriers.”
Which airlines?
“More to come on exact names, we’re not ready to share that yet,” said Trivedi. “I will tell you there has been an incredible amount of interest, within the commercial carrier sphere, in understanding what Manassas could end up being.”
Readying Manassas airport for passenger service — and what about noise?
While initial passenger service will be accommodated within the current terminal, the company estimated expansion will cost between $70 million and $125 million.
“The plan is to use the existing terminal building’s bones, because that’s a very nice building, and then we would be expanding on either side of it,” Trivedi said.
“We need front of house, we need a ticket lobby, a security checkpoint, a baggage handling system, we need hold rooms for the passengers to wait until they go out to their gates.”
One major construction project: The airport needs to replace bridges that span the main runway and the taxiway.
“We have a creek — Broad Run — that runs under our main runway, and our parallel taxiway, which is Taxiway Bravo,” said Berry. “That is what we will be reconstructing over the next year.”
The exact kinds of planes that will fly in and out of Manassas will depend on the carriers, said Berry.
“It could be the 737, it could be the Airbus A320s, it could be the Embraers,” said Berry. “The main runway for Manassas is 6,200 feet, so we get 737s occasionally, C-130 (military transport planes), so the length is no problem.”
Berry said the bridges that will need to be replaced were “engineered for occasional use of these aircraft, and when you start bringing in airlines, that’s a little bit more than occasional use.”
Regarding concerns about noise? “The airport already has over 100,000 operations annually. With bringing in the airlines, initially, it’s only go to increase the volume by about 10%. So, it’s a small increase in noise — we just don’t see that it’s going to be that impactful.”
When will passenger flights begin at Manassas Airport?
Trivedi was asked when he expects airline passengers will be able to book a flight out of Manassas airport: “I’ll leave that question for airlines, as to when they want to open up the booking window. What I will say, from Avports’ perspective, we are still hyper-focused on bringing commercial service in, in 2025.
Trivedi said the initial phase, in which commercial flights use the current terminal will allow the service to get off the ground.
“You’re sort of ramping into a schedule, airlines are going to want to want to be testing out the market.
Long-term, and in conjunction with the terminal expansion, “the runways and taxiways, at some point down the line, will have to be reconstructed, for the kind of traffic we see coming here in the next 10 to 15-odd years,” Trivedi said.
Initially, “We’re not going to be flying 30 flights, it’s going to be a couple flights in the beginning. Can we find some temporary solutions to help accommodate that, so we can start bringing service to the community as soon as possible,” said Trivedi.
At this point, Avports and the city haven’t updated their initial projection of 2025.
“Are we eager to start this service? Absolutely. I know Avports is eager to start the service, and we also know the community is eager to have the service,” said Berry.
“We’re not going to start the service until it’s right, and everything is in place, and that would include the airlines and the infrastructure, because we want to have a great product for the community, and we want to make sure that everything is right.”
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
