County Commission Hears Airport Survey Results

With a new terminal project moving forward and other changes, 2025 is poised to be a big year for the Flagler Executive Airport. Earlier this month county commissioners discussed a new master plan for the facility as well as the results of a survey of airport tenants and businesses.
County Administrator Heidi Petito said the county will be hiring a consultant to work on the new master plan, and funding from the state is expected in the summer.
“We look forward to the contract and to begin sometime along the July, August time frame,” she said. In addition, Petito said creation of a Working Group of residents and local stakeholders to work with the consultant is under consideration.
She said the group would potentially be a five-member board and would hold quarterly meetings. It would consist of people “expert in their field” and “help with some facilitated decision-making, discussing priorities (and) identifying challenges.”
Commission Chair Andy Dance asked how the county would create the new entity.
“I know we had different ways to go about this,” he said. “Could we do it like we’re doing the Industrial Development Authority, which is just a public call?”
Petito said it is important to get “community buy-in” and transparency in the formation of the Working Group.
Commissioner Kim Carney said she sees difficulty in proposed roles for economic development experts and commercial development members on the proposed board.
Petito said the suggested composition of the board “is not a guaranteed list (but) is kind of a potential member makeup” and the county can “fine tune the details.”
Also under discussion was the release of a customer survey conducted in December of last year of hangar tenants and business operators at the airport.
“We surveyed all the customers that were on the list for the airport,” said Deputy County Administrator Jorge Salinas. “One hundred twenty-five tenants were surveyed. We also received about 266 comments – the majority were very positive.”
Salinas said this was the first time the county had done a survey about the airport and when asked by Carney if there were plans to conduct future surveys he responded in the affirmative.
“The intent is to improve our service, that is the main point of this,” Salinas said.
Dance said he has been a proponent of conducting surveys because they provide a benchmark for operations.
“I think it’s a good opportunity to work on those improvements that you mentioned and setting parameters,” he said. “It’s a good first step and I’m glad we finally got to do this.”
