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Peter O. Knight's Important Role In County Aviation

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 28, 2008

After many years of planning and construction, the long-awaited Peter O. Knight Airport opened with great fanfare in 1935. Peter O. Knight was originally developed by the Federal Works Project Administration and up until 1946 it was operated as the principal commercial airport serving Hillsborough County and the Tampa Bay area.

In May 1946, the operations of the two airlines then serving the airport (Eastern and National) moved to Tampa International Airport, marking the end of Peter O. Knight as the bay area's commercial service airport. The airport and Davis Islands residents have been neighbors for over 70 years.

The Hillsborough County Aviation Authority was created in 1945 to own, maintain and safely operate all public airports in Hillsborough County. Since that time, the Aviation Authority has developed the system of airports to include Peter O. Knight, Plant City, Vandenberg and Tampa International airports.

As the CEO of the Aviation Authority, I have worked hard to be open and civic minded for the good of the community; and, I am very appreciative of our neighbors' concerns.

The Aviation Authority has no hidden agenda regarding the operations at Peter O. Knight Airport. This is evident by the developments that have occurred at the other airports in our system. During the last 10 years we have spent in excess of $35 million at Vandenberg Airport to construct a 5,000-foot runway and a new terminal facility to serve corporate and private jet operators; and, we have opened a second fixed-base operation at Tampa International Airport, which has doubled our general and corporate aviation capacity.

These two projects alone demonstrate that our goal is not to develop Peter O. Knight for larger aircraft, but to encourage these operators to locate at Vandenberg or Tampa International airports
The Aviation Authority has the obligation to operate the airport in a safe and efficient manner. In order to fulfill this obligation, we have presented a reconfiguration of Runway 3/21 to provide a mandated runway safety area.

This regulatory mandate requires an overrun area of 240 feet on both ends of the runway. The north end of the runway adjacent to the Seddon Channel does not meet this requirement so we intend to shift the runway 175 feet to the south, which will bring both ends of Runway 3/21 into compliance with federal requirements.

The Federal Aviation Administration supports our effort to make the runway safer. These changes will not increase the airport's capacity or ability to serve larger aircraft. Our plan also calls for constructing new hangars that will be sized to accommodate existing users of Peter O. Knight Airport, not to increase the activity or size of aircraft at the airport.

I can assure you that the Aviation Authority will continue to develop the aviation system to meet the requirements of Hillsborough County and during this process we will always consider the impacts on the community we serve.

Louis E. Miller is the executive director of the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority.

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