Frankfort/Clinton County Regional Airport Buys 26 Acres for New Hangars, With Runway Extension Planned Later

The Frankfort/Clinton County Regional Airport in Indiana has purchased 26 acres just east of its terminal building, laying the groundwork for new hangars, a larger ramp and, eventually, a runway extension. Nick Rasmussen, airport manager for Jet Access Aviation, which operates the airport under contract with the Frankfort/Clinton County Airport Authority, outlined the plans at a recent Frankfort Rotary Club program.

The property sits just south of Tenneco and east of the terminal, and development is expected to take a couple of years. The current plan calls for a 10-unit T-hangar block plus one to two block hangars, each able to house from two medium-sized business jets to six smaller aircraft. The ramp will be extended eastward. The airport has 36 T-hangar tenants and 11 or 12 more in its community hangar, roughly 46 to 47 tenants in all, and T-hangar space is sold out at 100% capacity.

Separately, the runway is slated for grooving next year, which involves cutting grooves into the concrete and crack-sealing the surface to improve wet and winter braking. Rasmussen likened the braking improvement to a 500-foot runway extension. Runway 09-27 is currently 5,000 feet long and 75 feet wide, with a maximum takeoff weight capacity of roughly 60,000 lbs. Rasmussen said a Boeing 737 could technically operate there depending on loading, though nothing that large has landed; the largest aircraft to visit, to his knowledge, was a PBY Catalina flying boat at the 2023 community day event.

Rasmussen said the airport serves roles beyond aviation. An IU Health air ambulance unit has been a full-time tenant since winter 2022, after being displaced from the Lafayette airport. The Clinton County Sheriff's Office and Frankfort Police Department use a runway for emergency vehicle training, and the airport hosts Skydive Indianapolis, which he described as the only skydive operation at an Indiana airport. Corporate users include PepsiCo's Frito-Lay plant, NHK and Covestro, while Purdue University and LIFT Academy use it for flight training.

Hangar capacity is often the binding constraint at smaller general aviation airports. When every T-hangar is leased, additional based aircraft and the fuel, maintenance and service revenue that follow cannot be added until new buildings exist. Buying land ahead of construction is the usual first step, and it lets an airport sequence projects over several years rather than commit to everything at once.

The tenant mix described here, which spans corporate flight departments, flight training, an air ambulance base and public-safety use, also shows why such airports can justify expansion. Each user group needs something different: ramp space and hangar volume for business jets, braking performance for wet and winter operations, and dependable access for medical flights. Grooving and crack-sealing address the last of these without lengthening the pavement, which is why the runway extension can wait.

The milestones that would firm up the plan are the ones tied to the land purchase: the design and construction of the T-hangar block and block hangars, the eastward ramp extension, and next year's runway grooving. The extension itself has no stated timetable beyond coming eventually.