The Manassas City Council accepted an early Christmas gift from Amazon Data Services.

This article is for our Locals Only members. Please Sign In or upgrade and Become a Locals Only Member today! Make the smart choice for staying informed about your community. Thank you!

Manassas School Board member Sara Brescia: "Manassas City, Manassas Park, Prince William County, and the Manassas Regional Airport are currently working out details to launch an Aviation Academy that will add new CTE pathways for students to pursue career training in aviation. By 2028, students will be able to study Flight Operations, Aviation Mechanics, or Aerospace Engineering, with junior and senior year coursework taking place at the Manassas Regional Airport itself."

This article is FREE to read. Please Sign In or Create a FREE Account. Thank you.

About 100 people, including Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin and community leaders, attended the opening ceremony welcoming the Tuskegee Airmen and Women Air Force Service Pilots Exhibit to Manassas Regional Airport on Tuesday, August 22, 2023.

Youngkin joined Manassas City Mayor Michelle Davis Younger. Both shared remarks on how monumental this occasion was. Proclamations were read from Manassas and Prince William County officials, and the governor recognized August 22 as Tuskegee and Women Air Force Service Pilots Commemorative Day.

This article is for our Locals Only members. Please Sign In or upgrade and Become a Locals Only Member today! Make the smart choice for staying informed about your community. Thank you!

The Manassas City Council unanimously approved a franchise agreement with Avports, LLC, to bring commercial passenger jet service to the city’s regional airport. 

“We have to be ready for growth, for the businesses that want to locate here, and for the businesses that are already here,” said Mayor Michelle Davis Younger.

Avports Manassas, LLC, owned by Goldman Sachs, will spend between $75 million to $125 million to triple the size of the current airport terminal at 10600 Harry J. Parrish Boulevard. During the first year, the expansion would clear the way for as many as three passenger flights a day from Manassas, serving nearby cities. Eventually, as many as 30 daily flights could come in and out of Manassas, providing a new gateway to the Washington, D.C. region.

In a multi-phased approach, Avports expects 3,650 flights during the first year, 8,760 in the second, and 11,680 in the third. Manassas Regional Airport is currently Virginia’s busiest general aviation airport, with 110,000 small plane and helicopter flights taking off and landing at the airport each year.

A PowerPoint presentation describing the proposed service showed several Boeing 737-800 aircraft on the Manassas airport tarmac, which holds about 200 passengers each. It remains unclear what size or type of aircraft could be used at the airport and where they will fly.

With approval in hand, the airport will begin working to gain permission from the FAA for passenger flights, which could take 18 months. After the first year of operation, should Avports wish to expand its operation, several noise, traffic, and environmental studies will be required.

Manassas and Prince William County residents spoke out again tonight, Monday, July 24, 2023, on a plan to bring as many as 30 commercial flights a day to the Manassas Regional Airport.

During an hour-long public hearing tonight, Monday, July 24, 2023, 

several and past members of the city’s airport commission, a 10-member body governing the city’s municipal airport operations, spoke in favor. “I was on the commission for the groundbreaking for the airport’s terminal in 1994. What you’re seeing today is the fruition of what we’ve been planning for over the past 25 years,” said “Dan Radtke, Manassas, a former airport commissioner for 26 years. “The terminal was going to support flights for [Disney’s America] theme park that was going to be on Route 15 [in Haymarket].

Disney never built the park. Crews eventually boarded up a baggage claim area built at the terminal. 

“Since 1992, we have worked to get to this point, to get this type of commercial travel. Avports [the company behind the proposal to add commercial flights at the airport ] is a very good company. Our [airport] commission went down a checklist and gave them a very high score.” They have everything in place to be successful. The airport is a successful, well-run machine. I totally support this,” said City Councilwoman Theresa Coates Ellis, who was an airport commissioner before elected to city council in 2018. 

However, those opposed to the plan said noise, traffic, and pollution are their primary concerns. 

Lyle Seranac lives in Prince William County, near the city’s airport. “It would be useful to have an initial noise assessment. I can’t image how 30 more flights a day will sound like if it comes to that.” said Saranac. “It sounds like the train is leaving the station, so that may not be possible.”

Residents are frustrated with a chicken or egg scenario, with officials telling them the city council must approve a franchise agreement with Avports before any of the studies required by the FAA will begin. Company officials said it plans to add four flights a day if approved in an initial project phase and about 25 flights a day in a second project phase.

Company leaders say they are “in talks” with several airlines that may provide service to the airport if the council approves an agreement. However, they’re unable to name them.

Avports submitted an unsolicited bid to Airport Director Juan Rivera to provide passenger jet service. This past spring, the city requested proposals for three weeks in May and received one response from Avports.

“A single bidder is a horrible approach to contracting,” said Dale Brown, Great Oak neighborhood HOA president. “If Avports goes under, you will have costs.”

“If we go belly up, the city will get a 100 million dollar building for nothing at all. You turn around and lease that out,” an Avports company official responded. 

Airport Director Rivera said the airport would contract with a fire and rescue services provider for public safety at the airport, saving taxpayers on hiring more fire and rescue crews. City Manager Patrick Pate said the city’s fire and rescue department would continue responding to routine airport calls. 

Rivera said emergency crews must hold drills and demonstrate to the FAA that they can respond to a plane crash every three years. 

“There is a very distinctive process that you have to go through, like a chain of command,” said Vice Mayor Pamela Sebesky. “This process has been explained to us three or four times over the last six weeks. This is not something that we’re not rushing into.” 

The Manassas City Council will meet at 5:30 p.m. today, Monday, July 24, 2023, to decide whether or not to allow commerce airline service from the city’s regional airport.

The jets would carry nearly 200 passengers and fly to destinations, including Florida, providing new options for travelers headed to and from the Washington, D.C. area. As many as 30 flights a day could operate from the airport, which is already Virginia’s largest general aviation airport.

The city council differed a decision on the matter during its July 10 meeting. The city aims to contract with Avports, LLC to bring as many as 30 commercial flights daily to the airport in jets, accommodating nearly 200 passengers.

Several city council members expressed excitement about the prospect of the city becoming a third airline gate to the National Captial Region. The city’s airport commission unanimously approved the proposal in June.

However, not everyone is excited about living next to what could become the third passenger gateway to Washington, D.C. “Was there a request from the community for this service? Did they say, ‘We’re having a hard time trying to find flights to Florida,” asked Manassas resident Douglass Hunter during the July 10 city council meeting. “Dulles Airport is only 30 minutes away.”

Under the proposal recommended to the city council by its airport commission, Avports, LLC would lease the Manassas Regional Airport terminal for 40 years, for $642,000 a year, and be responsible for ticketing, fare gates, baggage claim, and maintaining the parking lots. Eventually, Avports would expand the terminal to accommodate 16,000 flights per year — adding to the nearly 100,000 flights per year that already take off and land at the state’s largest general aviation airport.

The biggest questions before the city — what airline, or airlines will operate at the airport, to where would they fly, and how often — are still unknown and won’t be known until later this summer, after the city council is expected to approve the plan. Avports has several non-disclosure agreements with potential airlines that prevent city officials and city residents from knowing the answers; airport officials told PLN.

The firm operates a similar service at a municipal airport in New Haven, Conn.

WTOP-FM: "Manassas, Virginia-based drone maker RapidFlight has acquired the intellectual property rights from bankrupt autonomous vehicle maker Local Motors for an undisclosed sum. The Phoenix-based Local Motors shut down in March 2022."

This article is FREE to read. Please Sign In or Create a FREE Account. Thank you.

In late May/Early June we heard about the possibility of commercial air service coming to Manassas Airport. Finally, in late June the Airport Commission Board Chair confirmed the dream could become reality in mere months if the city council and the mayor find it acceptable.

Thousands of small airports across the country would be expressing gratitude for any air service planning to come to their facility. Air transportation is a major employer, providing vital economic benefits and boasting high occupancy rates. Air transportation is a major contributor to the economy, bringing in outside businesses and consumers.

The economic impact and social benefits of bringing commercial air flights are too innumerable to list, but what can be summarized is that bringing tourism and trade to any new area will foster the growth of that area significantly.

Avports, the experienced operator behind this application, is very optimistic, and they have indicated they will entrench themselves in this area much the same way as Omniride has, caring about our residents and being a pivotal part of the community.

That said, like all businesses, Avports measures its success by profitability, of which load factor plays a major part. Load factor is how full the airplanes are arriving to and departing from Manassas Airport. Avports has stated that Florida and other popular East Coast destinations will be the primary targets for testing.

Air service is a “use it or lose it” form of transportation to our community. Airlines serving the greater Washington market need to make money, or they will move their assets to other markets.  We are not just in competition with surrounding airports for our air service; we are in competition with every other community in the nation that wants air service. If an airline thinks its aircraft can make more money in another market, they will likely move that aircraft asset.

It is imperative that we support Avports and the air service that they are providing our community. At times, there may be seats available at less cost in other close-by markets; but every passenger leaving the Manassas market to fly from another airport further restricts our ability to grow our services and to get additional air service.

The Prince William Chamber of Commerce and our 1,300 members stand proudly in support of this project.  As its CEO, I would challenge the greater Washington region to commit to flying from the Manassas Airport.

Avports view our market favorably, but the future of expanded commercial air service in Manassas depends on the community’s commitment to fill the service they are going to provide.

Thank you, and Let’s fly.

Robert Sweeney
CEO, Prince William Chamber of Commerce

The Manassas City Council deferred a decision on allowing commercial airline services at its airport during its next meeting on July 24, 2023.

This article is for our Locals Only members. Please Sign In or upgrade and Become a Locals Only Member today! Make the smart choice for staying informed about your community. Thank you!