The Prescott airport is planning to shift and extend its main runway, allowing for larger planes and less restrictions.
The airport will remove 1,000 feet on the southern end of runway 3R/21L, the largest of three runways at the airport, and will extend the runway to the north, increasing the total length to 10,000 feet.
Currently, runway 3R/21L is 7,600 feet long.
The longer length will support larger and heavier aircraft, but airport manager Rick Crider said that’s not the only motivating factor.
Crider said the terrain on the south end of the runway increases in elevation, making development on that end of the airport more difficult.
“It moves the landing service away from the rising terrain that exists,” Crider said. “Again, we're a mountainous airport, the rising terrain exists in the southwest … out to the southwest of the airport.”
Additionally, the southern end of the runway, which reads 3R in large white print, is surrounded on all sides by housing, a golf course and State Route 89.
This includes a new housing development on the opposite side of SR89. Deep Well Ranch is a master-planned community that began development in 2017.
“One of the talking points was part of the merit of shifting the runway is that it shifts that noise further away from the residential development,” Crider said.
Crider said the airport had been discussing extending the runway, but there was “wisdom of shifting at the same time we extend.”
Extending the runway also lifts constraints on operations during the summer.
Air becomes less dense as elevation increases, and the Prescott airport sits at 5,000 feet above sea level.
Furthermore, during the summer, as the air warms and expands, the air density is even lower, making it more difficult for some aircraft to generate enough lift and thrust to get off the ground.
United Express and the U.S. Forest Service are among the heaviest operators in Prescott.
The density altitude and current runway length leads to firefighting aircraft carrying lighter payloads and less retardant, and airlines carrying fewer passengers.
“The airline will not fill all the seats,” Crider said. “Depending on how hot it is and what time of day it is, they will reduce the number of passengers they'll sell tickets to.”
The Prescott City Council voted unanimously to shift and extend the runway on Oct. 28, 2025.
The extended section of runway will be constructed on 400 acres of land acquired by the airport in January 2025.
Crider said the project has several hurdles it still needs to clear. He said the environmental review has just begun. It is also awaiting potential grant funding from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“It solves several problems,” Crider said. “It moves the noise away from the development, it allows for better development of the airport and the taxiway geometry.”
Crider expects the project to take up to five years to complete.
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