BRO AIRPORT ANXIOUSLY AWAITS GROWTH GENERATED BY NEW TERMINAL

Airport Director Bryant Walker

While the Brownsville/South Padre Island (International) Airport, now marketed as BRO, has no international flights, it is still a "gateway," a "point of origin" for flights north.

"Yes, we have more enplanements than deplanements," stated Walker, as we walked to view the newly refurbished Pan American Building.

"People from Mexico and further south board in Brownsville to go north, but not necessarily return.  We think Winter Texans also bring their RVs to Brownsville and then fly home," continued the director.

To be sure, a graph showed the last five years of airport business to be relatively flat, while both United Airlines and American Eagle experienced monetary declines the first four months of fiscal 2019(October 1-January 31).

Yet the new, much larger airport terminal, expected to be completed in 2020, gives the Airport Advisory Board reason for optimism.  

Right now, things are a mess with a necessary road detour and construction all around.  While earth-moving equipment was readying the terminal area for the new terminal's building pad, gas and fiber optic lines were being laid.

Walker and the advisory board are especially proud of the 1931 Pan American Building's interior and exterior restoration with new hardwood floors, replacement of exposed electrical conduit, new air conditioning as well as painting inside and out.

The building could be available for community events including a celebration of the airport's 90th anniversary March 9, 2019.