By Rick Davenport
Texas Transportation Institute
There’s nothing typical about Scholes International Airport at Galveston. Oh, sure, Scholes has runways and hangars just like you’d expect from any general aviation airport, but that’s where the similarities end. Scholes is maybe the most unique municipal airport in Texas.
For one thing, Scholes is located on the 27-mile-long island of Galveston. It’s out of the way for pilots needing refueling, so, if you wind up here, you meant to. The airport is large, with 1,200 acres of what appears to be a self-contained resort town within a resort town. From the observation deck of the two-year-old control tower, you can see everything that makes Scholes a place where you could hang out for days, if not weeks, and not get bored.
On the airport property there are three huge, colored pyramid-shaped buildings that house a science museum, rainforest and aquarium. They all belong to Moody Gardens, an expansive recreation and learning facility covering 282 acres. Oh, and you can’t help but notice the Schlitterbahn Water Park, the first heated and climate controlled indoor water park in Texas. Two years ago, Schlitterbahn decided to make Galveston its third location, joining the family of popular parks already established in New Braunfels and South Padre Island. (Yes, Scholes has one of the only airport water parks in the nation.)
Other fun facilities include an 18-hole golf course (currently undergoing a $19 million renovation scheduled for a May 2008 completion), a driving range and two hotels. The paramount attraction for aircraft enthusiasts, the Lone Star Flight Museum, boasts 70,000 visitors annually.
“It is a place where you could spend a week and never leave the property, except for the seafood and other restaurants on the island, and of course to visit the beach, for a bit of sunbathing or fishing in the surf,” says Hud Hopkins, the director of Scholes since 1999.
Hopkins was with the Galveston Parks and Recreation Department l O years ago when he became deputy director of the airport. Two years later he was asked to take the top job, but only on an interim basis. “No one really wanted the job, because at the time, the airport was losing money, and was not considered a city attribute,” explains Hopkins.
For the first time in its history, the airport turned a profit in 1999, and it’s stayed in positive territory ever since. (Most airports rely on the city to meet expenditures.) Part of the success has to be attributed to Hopkins, who was named Airport Manager of the Year in 2005. But some of the credit has to go to the economic boom taking place around him. “Galveston Island attracted seven million visitors last year and has had $2.8 billion worth of new construction in the last six years alone,” he says. “During that same time, Scholes has spent $17 million on new construction projects, including the tower, runway improvements and renovations to our terminal.”
Galveston has become a hot spot for new business and home construction, as well as vacation home purchases for corporate executives and others. Seaside property on Galveston Island costs only a fraction of what other waterfront real estate costs in other parts of the country.
Scholes also has the distinction of being “the busiest heliport in Texas.” With the Gulf of Mexico out its back door, Galveston is the perfect spot for transporting workers to platforms as much as 200 miles offshore. Thanks to the booming oil business, companies like PHI (Petroleum Helicopters, Inc.) conducted 79,000 take-offs and landings from Scholes last year. “Instead of the 4- passenger Bell 206 helicopters that used to be so common, PHI now has a Aeet of the 12 to 19-passenger S-76 and S-92 helicopters operating from our facility,” says Hopkins. ”These larger aircraft are more technologically advanced, they can go out further, carry more fuel and cargo, and with two engines they are safer.” – Helicopter traffic represents 61 percent of the flight operations at Scholes.
“From my office, I look at all the activity around me every day,” Hopkins says smiling. “From the helicopters taking offshore workers out for a two-week stay on a Gulf platform, to the hundreds of visitors coming to enjoy Moody Gardens and Schlitterbahn, I have a pretty unique vantage point. I can’t help but wonder if those friends and colleagues who were concerned about me taking this job years ago, aren’t a bit jealous now.”
