CHARLESTON, W.Va. — An additional $800,000 is now going toward West Virginia International Yeager Airport’s major $60 million dollar renovation and terminal development project– CRW NEXT.
The board at Yeager approved the $800,000 dollar grant through the West Virginia Water Development Authority during its monthly meeting Wednesday.
Andrew Gunnoe
CRW Chief Development Officer Andrew Gunnoe said the Economic Enhancement Grant will match federal funds they’ve received for the project and will allow them to make a lot more progress on it overall, with the major portion being the construction, expansion and design of the terminal building.
He said they have already made much progress on the project so far.
“So, if you’ve been to the airport recently you’ve probably seen some signs up and some construction walls, but we’ve got a renovation of our restrooms underway, so that’s very exciting, our main lobby restrooms are being renovated, and also, we’re adding a second in-bound baggage belt, that is really important because that will allow us to handle multiple flights at a time with baggage coming in and it will speed up that process,” Gunnoe said.
Gunnoe said the restroom renovation and expansion to their baggage system marks phase one of the project.
He said they will move to phase two within the next 12 to 18 months which is the actual terminal expansion portion.
Gunnoe said expanding their terminal will elevate customer experience overall and will ensure they have gates available for the mainline types of aircraft they are starting to see come into CRW.
He said the project will help meet the needs for the future of the aviation industry.
“It’s really a project to renovate our 70 year old terminal building, to bring it up to what it needs to be, and to basically make it better for our passengers today, but also be what we will need 20, 30, 40 years from now,” he said.
Original estimates for the overall project were projected at $60 million, which Gunnoe said is still around where it’s projected to cost.
He said it’s crucial they meet passenger demand as well as meet the demand for the airlines, which this project will achieve.
“Essentially, over the years, air service now, instead of having more flights and smaller planes, we’re going to less flights a day, but larger planes,” he said. “And to meet those needs of those larger planes, we need to expand from our mainline gates.”
He said currently, CRW has two gates, B1 and B2 that serve Breeze Airways, Delta, and some of the larger planes they’re seeing come in.
Gunnoe said through CRW NEXT, they will expand to between four to five larger gates to accommodate the larger planes.
He said overall, they are anticipating this project will take between two or three years to complete.
In addition, Gunnoe said they are working with the state Department of Tourism to help expand West Virginia’s footprint.
“Aviation is very important to what the tourism office is doing with the economic development in the state, so we’re looking at the big picture, I mean it’s our airport, but we feel like we’re not just the airport for the Capitol City, but really the airport for the state,” said Gunnoe.
Gunnoe said the addition of Breeze Airways a couple of years ago and all of its various flight offerings it has brought to Yeager Airport have really helped with this tourism expansion. Breeze now offers flights out of CRW to Newark, New Jersey, Tampa Bay, Florida, Orlando, Florida, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.