CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The community was invited to Corpus Christi International Airport on Wednesday night to give input on its master plan.
Airport leadership plans to map out decades of development there and in the surrounding area.
3NEWS reported over the last couple years about potential flights to new destinations that could be coming to our airport. Those flights are not there yet, and officials explained if they could still be on the way.
"This master plan's going to look at everything from the terminal building to parking lots, the airfield capabilities and then everything all around that as well," CCIA Deputy Airport Director Tyler Miller said.
Miller said the plan looks at forecasted activity in the future. With almost 750,000 people coming through the CCIA terminal annually, he said the airport is constantly talking with airlines about what Corpus Christi has to offer.
"Why it makes sense for airlines to fly in and out of our community, and it's making more and more sense for them as we make organizational change here in Corpus and as the industry starts to adjust," he said.
Miller said CCIA worked to lower their costs, making the airport more attractive to airlines. He cited aircraft and pilot shortages and other economic factors as reasons for delays in adding new flights from Corpus Christi. He said cities like Denver and others are in top markets that are unserved by CCIA.
"That's the narrative that we're pushing for certain carriers where it makes sense is always the Vegas, the Orlando, Phoenix, etcetera," Miller said. "We're also talking to international carriers. We'd love to bolster our international profile."
He added that those international flights could be to places like Mexico and South America.
CCIA also has an incentive program that allows them to guarantee an airline would profit from new flight service. Miller said that could be a key factor that pushes an airline to serve Corpus Christi.
As for their master plan, he said they have an idea what the future holds for CCIA.
"What we see between now and 2050 is a lot of growth in the passenger traffic, then the increased infrastructure to match that demand," Miller said.