After a decade of research and preparation, the Conroe-North Houston Regional Airport will open its first customs facility Sept. 12.
As it stands, pilots who fly internationally into the local airport today have to stop at another airport beforehand to clear customs, Airport Director Scott Smith said. The new facility will benefit both pilots and the community as it is expected to encourage international business within Montgomery County.
“[The customs facility] will open up the north side of the Houston metroplex here for business, corporate and general aviation to fly in directly here and clear customs rather than having to stop somewhere else and then fly here,” Smith said. “So it really will save time and money and will attract more business aviation because of the ability to clear customs here. It’s convenience and a service, but it’s also an economic development tool.”
Smith said the idea of building a local customs facility was first introduced in 2006. Following a research period, Smith hired a consultant in 2013 to conduct a study on the viability of the airport becoming a user-fee customs location.
“It brings more business to the community,” Smith said. “Whether it’s people dropping in to conduct business here and then leaving on their way, or people who are looking to relocate their companies, they’re looking for opportunities and generally having a viable airport is a requirement. So having customs for those who do international business is a real plus.”
Smith said the direct economic benefit of the airport on the community is roughly $35 million per year and with the addition of the customs facility, that amount is only expected to increase.
The Woodlands Area Economic Development Partnership contributed $50,000 toward the construction of the customs facility’s information technology infrastructure.
CEO Gil Staley said the customs facility will not only serve as a time-saver for users but will also help keep Montgomery County competitive with areas, such as Sugar Land and Dallas-Fort Worth, that already have local airports with customs facilities.
“At Economic Development, we’re about job creation and capital investment, and we do that by recruiting companies and also by helping companies stay here and grow,” Staley said. “On the recruitment side, [the customs facility] gives us another tool in our toolbox. We want to be competitive, so we think this is a great asset to our ability to recruit companies.”
In addition to the new customs facility, the airport also plans to add two more 20,000-square-foot hangars—or aircraft storage and service areas—to the location by spring 2017. Smith said the airport has tripled its hangar space over the past six years and has 733,000 square feet of space designated for aircraft storage and service. The two additional hangars will bring the total number of aircraft spaces at the airport to 216.
“We plan to have the parking areas for aircraft to go in front of hangars completed before the Super Bowl because we’re anticipating having to park quite a number of corporate and business aircraft that weekend, so we’re going to want more space for that,” Smith said, referring to the 2017 NFL championship game set to be played at NRG Stadium in February.
After these two projects are completed, Smith said the airport will focus on taxiway construction, pavement rehabilitation and capital development of the airfield over the next several years.
Smith said he is confident these improvements will be vital to strengthening the overall economy of Montgomery County.
“I can’t stress enough that it’s an economic development tool, and that the planning horizon from a benefit perspective is really a 10-year planning horizon; this is not like an overnight analysis on benefit cost,” he said. “This is a long-term economic development tool, and it is an additional service that the airport can offer to meet the existing and coming aviation demand.”
