The Metropolitan Airports Commission, the Eden Prairie Chamber of Commerce and Eden Prairie’s Flying Cloud Airport Advisory Commission has broken ground on a $27M expansion program that includes runway extensions, new taxiways, additional hangars and infrastructure improvements.
The project will enhance safety, increase storage capacity, allow more efficient use of the airport, and hopefully take some corporate jet traffic that currently has to stop at Minneapolis-St. Paul International (MSP) for passengers or fuel, says Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the MAC.
“That will help reduce congestion at MSP,” he says.
Currently, the longest runway at Flying Cloud is only 3,909 feet, which is too short for many aircraft at the reliever airport to take off fully loaded. That prevents some businesses from carrying as many passengers, bags or cargo as their aircraft were designed to accommodate. When completed, one runway at Flying Cloud (FCM) will be 3,900 feet and the other will be 5,000 feet. Federal aviation grants will cover about $8.65M for runway improvements. About $10M of the cost for new building development will be funded by airport users; the MAC will fund the remaining $8.4M.
The project will begin this summer and run through the winter of 2010.
“This day has been nearly two decades in the making,” says Jack Lanners, MAC chairman, in a statement. “By investing in the future of Flying Cloud Airport, we are investing in the future economic vitality of Minnesota.”
