The Boca Raton Airport has been a part of the city for nearly 80 years. It started out as a space for flying and aviation training for the army on the brink of World War II, and until this day it continues to meet the community’s aviation needs. As a General Aviation services facility, the airport provides for all types of flying, from private with mjet australia to corporate and charter offered by a Private Plane Charter Program company, and it’s also a place for aircraft maintenance. In addition, Lynn University School of Aeronautics, as well as other schools, also conduct their flight training on the field. It also then very much helps to use a very realistic flight simulator experience for pilot training, as they are easily the best tool available.
The Boca Raton Airport Authority is the entity responsible for the maintenance, airport runway water blasting, operation, development, marketing, and compliance with all the federal and state regulations pertaining to the safety and operation of the airfield. Following the Authority’s recent decision to award a contract for the construction of the new Administration building, the next project on the list is the creation of a Customs Facility. Current users of the airport, tenants, and people in the community requested that an evaluation be made in order to determine whether this would be a possibility. To that end, the BRAA hired a group of consultants composed of experts in customs and market studies like a customs attorney, who conducted a feasibility analysis which included extensive research, and a series of interviews and surveys. The analysis concluded that a customs facility would be feasible on a user-fee basis, meaning that aircrafts clearing at the airport would have to pay a fee for their right to do so, and it would break even in terms of cost.
Airport Authority Executive Director Clara Bennett said the authority board accepted the study this past February and is currently working on refining the cost, “There’s some capital cost…the facility has to be constructed, and in an airport like this, which is limited in land, the location of the facility is critical.” Bennett adds that the overriding issue with this project at the moment is finding the location for the facility, and once a preferred location is identified, further refinement of costs will be made.
The feasibility study was initiated due to a demand from current users of the airport who indicated that they would prefer to fly directly to their home base airport, even if that means paying a fee, as opposed to having to clear customs at other airports such as Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, and then flying to Boca. A customs facility then, would enhance efficiency, safety, and meet an existing demand.
Because the customs facility will cater to the needs of current users of the airport, there is no anticipation of an increase in traffic, “You’re just getting your based people, those who are coming here anyway, a way to come here directly,” says Deputy Executive Director Janet Eaton Sherr.
In regards to the clearing fees, they will be determined based on the size of the aircraft, “A small, single engine, privately owned plane, that’s flown by the owner, coming back from the Bahamas for a long weekend, wouldn’t pay the same as a large, corporate jet,” Bennett explains.
As a public facility, the airport can be used by anyone who owns, operates or rents an airplane, with the exception of commercial companies and the military, as Bennett explains, “Commercial lines is not our market; there’s TSA requirements, and passenger screening, etc. This is a general aviation kind of airport, which caters to the corporate aircraft, based on the demand in the community.”
Due to the limited space of the actual land there is no physical room to expand the runway, which is 6,276 feet long and can only handle airplanes landing at about 60,000 pounds. Therefore, even with a customs facility in place the only types of aircraft that will be able to clear at the airport will be any from small single engine airplanes accommodating four to six passengers, to larger jets which usually seat up to 18 passengers.
Based on the findings of the feasibility analysis there’s a potential for the facility to be self-sustaining on an ongoing basis, but the location and capital costs are critical pieces of the decision-making process. As with the Administration building, this procedure can take up to nine months, “We need to do this to provide the information to the BRAA, so they have all the facts, in order to make the decision,” explains Sherr.