ASHEBORO — The design phase is set to begin for a new terminal building at Asheboro Regional Airport. 


The new facility would provide pilots and other users with much-needed amenities, and be joined to a museum that highlights North Carolina's place in aviation history.


The existing 4,000 sq. ft. terminal building opened in 1972. It has served this business class airport well but city leaders say it lacks features pilots and others have come to expect.

 

"Right now, if you fly in a business aviation jet there's no place for the pilots to rest. We need them a place to log in and log out. If we have two or three jets come to meet here there's no meeting space here, so, what a business person would need is really not at this airport,” said John Ogburn, Asheboro’s city manager.

 

Ogburn and airport officials envision a 10,000 to 12,000 sq. foot terminal that would more than satisfy those needs and include a restaurant.

 

"For pilots to come in, as well as the public, as well as the folks that come use the museum,” he said. “Like most airports this Asheboro Regional Airport is not close to our downtown or to our major business district."

 

Plans call for siting the airport adjacent to the North Carolina Aviation Museum & Hall of Fame.

 

"And to tie in with the WWII exhibit, of course the Wright Brothers with the home of flight," said Ogburn.

 

An aviation-themed hallway would bridge the two facilities.

 

"A place to put the Hall of Fame as a literal hall of fame,” said city engineer Michael Leonard. “Right now we've got such a nice facility for the aviation museum but we really don't have a hall of fame."

 

Several years ago the airport lengthened its runway, and it includes a flight school and avionics repair shop. Ogburn calls the future terminal building the airport's missing link.

 

"This is a business airport and I think it's one of 27 in the state,” he said. “We're pretty proud of it."

 

Ogburn estimated the new terminal would cost between $500,000 and $600,000 to build, and would open in 2018. The cost would be split between federal dollars and private capital.