Conway Airport Director Jake Briley said during the Airport Advisory Committee meeting Thursday that the Conway Municipal Airport at Cantrell Field’s goal of achieving national airport status is close to happening.
Currently, the airport is a regional airport and in order to achieve the nation designation, airports need to have at least 11 based jets on the airfield, at least 5,000 annual instrument approach procedures filed and at least 20 international flights a year.
Briley said Thursday that Cantrell Field was able to hit the based jets and international flight requirement in 2022 but was just short of the annual instrument approach requirement by 2,000-3,000.
“I think by the end of this year, we should be toward that national airport,” he said.
Briley said that he will be know before December if they will be close to hitting 5,000 annual instrument approach procedures filed for this year.
If the airport does end up meeting the requirements to become a national airport, that would allow the airport to receive more funding from grant money.
For example, currently the airport receives about $295,000 from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for being a regional airport, but if it becomes a national airport, it would receive about $750,000 from his grant.
Jordan Wooodson can be reached at jwoodson@thecabin.net
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