{"id":18672,"date":"2025-04-04T13:12:26","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T17:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.collierclerk.com\/?p=18672"},"modified":"2026-01-20T12:59:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T17:59:31","slug":"update-on-the-potential-deactivation-of-the-everglades-airpark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/update-on-the-potential-deactivation-of-the-everglades-airpark\/","title":{"rendered":"Update on the Potential Deactivation of the Everglades Airpark"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Everglades Airpark is one of the three airports operated by the Board of County Commissioners acting as the Collier County Airport Authority, along with Marco Island Executive Airport and Immokalee Regional Airport. The Airpark has serviced Everglades City since the 1960\u2019s.<\/p>\n

During the March 11 BCC Meeting, an agenda item authorizing staff to engage the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to seek guidance and information regarding the potential deactivation of Everglades Airpark as a public airport was brought for Board discussion and public comments.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Everglades Airpark had 3,569 documented trips, an average of 10 trips per day. Documented trips prior to Hurricane Ian amounted to 6,664.\u00a0 \u00a0The Everglades Airpark is currently \u2018Unclassified\u2019 status and does not receive guaranteed annual FAA grant funding or FDOT funding to help with operational costs and capital improvements.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Other factors impacting activity levels at the Everglades Airpark include the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The hangar building with eight aircraft bays was destroyed by Hurricane Ian; repairs are estimated to cost $1.2M. \u00a0This impacts both hangar rental revenue, as well as fuel sales.<\/li>\n
  2. Generating revenue through fuel sales has been challenging at the Airpark due to fuel payment connectivity (limited or no ability to pay for fuel via credit cards) and repairs of the hangars that have not been made.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    There are concerns of potential costs if the Everglades Airpark gets decommissioned as the County previously accepted and used state and federal grants for the Airpark, if the Board decides to deactivate it after consulting with the FAA and FDOT, then there may be financial obligations including terms of paying back a portion of the grants. The terms and final amount still need to be clarified with the FAA and FDOT. Greater concern may be that if ever \u201cdecommissioned\u201d it would be virtually impossible to resurrect.<\/p>\n

    Due to these uncertainties, the Board decided to reframe the agenda to allow staff to engage with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) for factfinding as it related to grant obligations and assurances. Additionally, a comprehensive study will be conducted to explore ways to make the airport more operational and profitable. From the suggestion of various aviation groups that were present and spoke during the public hearing, the Board adopted the recommendation to create an ad-hoc committee that will facilitate discussion with County Staff after the fact-finding and consultation with the FAA and FDOT for proper utilization of the airport facility. This will include looking for ways to make the Everglades Airpark eligible for FAA-AIP (Airport Improvement Program) grants toward become self-supporting.<\/p>\n

    The Board unanimously approved this motion, with representatives from the aviation community agreeing to have members volunteer to be in the ad-hoc committee.<\/p>\n

    For the Everglades Airport to continue its operations, issues related to fuel sales and rental hangar space, which are the major revenue drivers, would be addressed to create a more sustainable source of funding. We will continue monitoring developments for this facility as it will have a significant local impact on Everglades City.<\/p>\n

    Read and download the April 2025 Newsletter here.\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The Everglades Airpark is one of the three airports operated by the Board of County Commissioners acting as the Collier … <\/p>\n

    Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":18673,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1534,1533,1532,1536,1537,1535,1538,1539],"class_list":["post-18672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-announcements","tag-annual-deficit","tag-deactivation","tag-everglades-airpark","tag-faa","tag-faa-aip-airport-improvement-program","tag-fdot","tag-federal-aviation-administration","tag-florida-department-of-transportation","infinite-scroll-item","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-25","resize-featured-image"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18672"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18765,"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18672\/revisions\/18765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/app.collierclerk.com\/collierclerkcom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}