Demopolis Municipal Airport moves forward on $5M renovation project

Demopolis Municipal Airport is entering the second phase of its nearly $5 million renovation and improvement project now that the city council approved the latest plans on Thursday.

The second phase includes improvements to the apron where planes park. The first phase started construction of a new terminal that is now underway, and set aside funds for repaving the taxiway, Jason Pendergrass, airport manager, told the Black Belt News Network.

At the council meeting last week, Mayor Woody Collins applauded Pendergrass for “securing grants, saving the city money and also doing a good job of managing the work going on out there.” He added the airport “is becoming something we can be proud of.”

“I will absolutely give them a pat on the back,” the mayor said.

The new terminal replaces the original one that is a small, metal building that was built in the 1970s. The new terminal will have a larger lobby, a conference room, pilot’s lounge and weather briefing room, which are common in airport terminals of today, Pendergrass said.

The Demopolis airport was built by the military in the 1940s after World War II for flight training and was given to the city after the war. The airport has been used by the city ever since and staffed consistently since the late 80s, Pendergrass said.

Demopolis airport doesn’t have commercial airline traffic, but it sees a variety of airplanes and helicopters coming through for private use, flight training, agriculture needs, emergency medical flights, and by military and law enforcement, he said.

Demopolis’ airport has fuel available for sale, but Pendergrass said the traffic isn’t robust enough for that to be a big revenue source as it is at larger airports.

Building a new terminal is costing about $1.3 million with the site work, engineering and architectural work along with construction. The first phase of the apron and taxiway is costing $1.4 million and the second phase is $1.9 million. Ninety percent of the funding is federal with 5% coming from the state and 5% from local funds. The airport has also gotten grants that are available to public airports, Pendergrass said.

The grants are competitive, and Pendergrass thinks Demopolis has beaten out other municipal airports because of the strong local support, especially from the city, and the fact that it has been staffed consistently for nearly 40 years.

“We operate seven days a week year-round and put a lot of effort into it,” Pendergrass said. “And there’s a need for an airport locally to support the economy and our population.” 

Companies and the government use the airport to conduct inspections like those for pipelines and powerlines, for forestry needs and crop dusting, he added.

“I try to share with people the importance of the local airport and ways to support it,” Pendergrass said. “The community doesn’t realize how important it is.”

Pendergrass is often helping pilots refuel in the middle of the night or welcoming corporate jets coming in for meetings with industries in the area on short notice.

“There’s a huge variety of things coming through here,” he said.

BBNN correspondent Jan McDonald contributed to this report.