(Photo by Rene Rauschenberger)
By Ken Sain | San Tan Sun
City officials want to make one thing very clear: Don’t expect to see American or United planes landing at Chandler Airport.
“When we think of airports, we think of Sky Harbor, we think of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway. We don’t think of small regional or general-aviation airports,” City Manager Joshua Wright said. “They’re not designed to be a passenger airport and that’s never been the plan for Chandler.”
Wright said the airport will remain focused on business and executive travel only.
To help it with that mission, the city is currently reviewing applications to manage the airport – the third busiest of its kind in the Valley. Deer Valley and Mesa’s Falcon Field rank ahead of it.
Wright said the need for the position became apparent after City Council reviewed its plan for the airport and the surrounding airpark last summer.
“It comes from the Council’s … renewed commitment to growing the airport and the airpark area,” Wright said. “I think we’ve realized in the last few years it’s one of the last frontiers in terms of the growth of Chandler.”
