Southwest Airlines to Announce the Destination Cities

Southwest Airlines will announce the four to and fro flight locations from the new Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport on Wednesday moring.The ceremony will be held at the Breakers Restaurant in Panama City Beach at 10.00 AM. Bob Montgomery, Southwest vice president of properties will make the announcement during a press conference. He will also announce the new special introductory fares for the eight non stop flights from the new international airport.

We’ve been running a poll on which destinations were more favored by our readers to come to Panama City Beach. The top five respectively were Chicago, New York, Nashville, Dallas, and Baltimore.

The new international airport is expected to be opened on May 18^th 2010 with the Southwest flights to operate daily. The Airport Authority Chairman Joe Tannehill said that it was exciting news and everybody would be delighted when southwest announces the low fares.

In the meantime, Bay County Tourist Development Council (TDC) officials will start a public relations campaign in the cities after the announcement is officially made, using social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. According to Dan Rowe,TDC executive director, the announcement and selling of the flight tickets would bring energy to the whole project.

The TDC has made an agreement with Southwest, the largest domestic airlines in USA to bring its service to the new airport with daily non stop flights from the four cities. The airline reached an agreement previously with The St. Joe Co., the Panhandle’s largest landowner, that guarantees any losses from its new operations into Northwest Florida for the initial two years. Many experts see the deal as a boost for the economic development of the region.

Foreign Trade Zone Status at New Airport

Panama City, FL (Nov. 10, 2008) – The Panama City – Bay County International Airport Authority has directed Airport Executive Director Randy Curtis to evaluate the options for establishing a Foreign trade zone at the new international airport currently under construction in West Bay.

“The airport board believes it is important to establish a Foreign Trade Zone at the new airport in order to maximize its economic development potential,” said Airport Authority chairman Joe Tannehill. “Having a foreign trade status at the new airport will put us in another category altogether and be an important differentiator in competing for new jobs and business expansions.”

The action taken by the Airport Authority is in consideration of extensive statistics documenting the importance of foreign trade to the Florida economy. It noted that establishing a Foreign Trade Zone at the new Panama City – Bay County airport would make the new facility one of 10 airports in Florida.

Airport board members agreed that Foreign Trade Zone in West Bay would benefit the community and the region by facilitating and expediting international trade, providing special customs procedures as a public service to help firms conduct business, encouraging and facilitating exports, attracting offshore activity, assisting state/local economic development efforts and creating employment opportunities.

The action taken directs Airport Executive Director Randy Curtis to begin immediately preliminary work to create a Foreign Trade Zone at the new international airport in WestBay.

Specifically, the board asked Curtis to develop options for the airport board to consider concerning the size and boundaries of the trade zone, including a discussion of the costs and benefits associated with each option presented. Further, the board asked Curtis to investigate public/private partnerships to stimulate intermodal infrastructure development.

Florida Trade Facts:

The U.S. is the world’s largest trading nation, exporting nearly $1.3 trillion in goods and services and more than one-fifth of the growth in U.S. GDP depends on exports. (1)

Manufacturing exports support an estimated 5.2 million jobs, including 1 in 5 manufacturing jobs, and jobs supported by goods exports pay 13-18% higher than the average wage. (2)

More than 30,000 companies export from Florida locations, including more than 28,000 small and medium-sized businesses. (3)

Florida’s export shipments of merchandise in 2007 totaled $45 billion, up 80 percent from $25 billion in 2003, ranking sixth among the states in terms of total exports in 2007, and exporting to 222 foreign destinations. (4)

1 – Office of the United States Trade Representative, 2005 data (latest available).
2 – Office of the United States Trade Representative, 2002 data (latest available).
3- International Trade Administration and Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division (2006 data).
4 – Revised Origin of Movement State Export Series, Bureau of the Census, Foreign Trade Division (2007 data).

Contact:
The Panama City Bay County International Airport
Randy Curtis, Executive Director, 850-763-6751 ext. 203

Airport to begin Paving Runway

Nearly a whopping 3 months ahead of schedule, the 10,000 foot primary runway is only weeks from seeing the first warm morsels of pavement. Although the current contract is for 8,400 feet, the funding is in place for the full 10,000 feet. Hopefully this decision will be solidified in the coming weeks.

“Next week, we’ll begin laying pavement test strips for the runway,” said the Senior Project Manager for KBR, Roy Willett. With over 130 pieces of Caterpillar equipment on site, the project has moved over 4 million cubic yards of material. “There’s been a great level of cooperation from a local, state, and federal level,” said Willett. “We don’t feel like we’ve had to pull this project along, like we have others in the past.” 80% of all storm sewer systems have been installed.

The main loop is paved, all except in front of the terminal. There are heavy utilities that will be in front of the terminal building that need to be installed before the the paving can take place. The 11,000 foot, 4 lane entrance road from Highway 388 has been completed since June and is now completely replaced the usage of the temporary construction entrance.

Looking at the terminal footprint, I expressed concern about the future expansion of the terminal building the additional airport facilities. Randy Curtis explained that the terminal building can be expanded to the north and south to accommodate demand and the concourse could V at the end to purvey supplemental gates. Long term plans also include another runway parallel to the primary runway with room for a terminal similar in size to the main terminal and a “mid-field” terminal as well.

With all the “bad” soil filling the holes where the “good” soil was excavated, the entire construction site is “balanced” in that no dirt had to be taken out, nor brought in.

The 10,000 foot runway will accomodate everything short of an Antonov filled with pipes.

Click here to download the special ‘VIP’ flyer that we were given; includes aerials, layouts, etc.

For those that didn’t notice on the sidebar, I was providing up to the minute updates (where cell service permitted) on my tour of the airport. If you want instant updates, subscribe to my twitter page and set up your mobile phone to receive text messages whenever I have updates.

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Crist OKs State Funding Allocation for the Panama City Airport

On Wednesday, Governor Charlie Crist signed a $66 billion budget that included $12 million for the construction of the new Panama City Bay County International Airport and the road that connects it from Highway 388.

The Panhandle Citizens Coalition had written a letter to Crist explaining why he should veto the funding for the new airport citing, as reported by the News Herald, that the airport was voted against in a non-binding referendum and that it has been under litigation.

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