Quote Originally Posted by HOT ROD View Post
WHY?? do we have Wiley Post airport then? It seems to be a bit of a waste of space when WRWA is the preferred airport by far and (as Catch mentioned) Norman would be better utilized for transient traffic if you didn't use WRWA.

I always thought PWA would be a great location for an aircraft manufacturer or maintenance but even those and FBOs seem to only want to be at WRWA. So I ask, and am being honest, WHY do we have PWA? Is it time to shut it and CE Page down and focus resources?
PWA is meant to relieve GA(general aviation) traffic from Will Rogers, as is OUN given its reliever status. Given that PWA has 400 plus based aircraft (including 100 jets) based there and OUN has 100 plus aircraft I would say they're doing their jobs fairly well. OKC only has about 20k GA ops per year whereas PWA and OUN handle about 118k GA ops per year. That's not to say OKC can't have GA traffic because it does see some GA traffic due to its more convenient location for some businesses. If you'll remember, PWA used to have an aircraft manufacturer for a long time back in the heyday of aviation. And they currently have a decently sized aerospace maintenance/modification company out there now utilizing some of the old manufacturing facilities.

PWA can handle just about any aircraft in the GA fleet except for the BBJ type aircraft. To increase the strength of the runway to accommodate such aircraft would be outside the scope of what federal/state agencies could afford.....and the airport trust certainly isn't going to do it on their own dime. OUN is in a prime location to handle larger aircraft, but they're currently landlocked and can't handle much of an expansion in any direction.