CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia International Yeager Airport only continues to advance through its major renovation undertakings and now a completely new board.
At Yeager’s monthly board meeting on Wednesday, the board welcomed the newest members that will sit on the Central West Virginia Regional Airport Authority.
Tourism Secretary Chelsea Ruby on behalf of Governor Patrick Morrisey will sit on the board as well as Kanawha County representatives Delegate Tristan Leavitt, Attorneys Booth Goodwin and Paul Saluja, and Greylock Energy President and CEO Kyle Mork.
Existing member Todd Goldman was selected to serve as Chair of the authority.
Another existing member, Lisa Pack was named Vice Chair, Dr. Lewis Whaley, a radiation oncologist in Charleston will serve as Authority Secretary, and Charleston Area Alliance President and CEO Mara Boggs will serve as Vice Secretary.
Member counties of the authority appoint these board members to serve three year terms.
Yeager Airport Director and CEO Dominque Ranieri told MetroNews that they are confident these new board members will serve the state’s largest airport well.
“We are so excited and so lucky to have them on our board, they’re going to do a fantastic job as we get into some very exciting projects here at CRW including our CRW Terminal Renovation Project ,” Raneiri said. ”
Raneiri said progress only continues to be made on the over $60 million dollar CRW Next Terminal Renovation Project following an $8 million dollar investment focused on modernizing the pre-security areas of the terminal.
She said the bid opening for the pre-security terminal renovation will be due on July 31and then the process will begin.
“We will open those bids that afternoon and then we will have a construction committee meeting in the month of August to review those bids and make a recommendation to the full board to award the contract to the lowest qualified bidder,” she said.
The pre-security renovations at the airport include the ticket lobby, baggage claim area, and all public spaces in between.
Ranieri said the bathrooms under renovation have already opened in the ticket lobby. She said they will have some temporary fixtures that will be switched out during closures at night and will have no effect on passengers as work continues on the bathrooms.
Ranieri also said the second baggage belt is now up and running.
“We are very excited to have both bag belts to expedite baggage return to our customers,” she said.
The overall renovations for the pre-security project, a facet to the major CRW Next, will get underway this fall.
Ranieri said that another exciting advancement at CRW has been the steady uptick in passengers coming through the airport this summer.
She said their enplanement numbers reflecting the amount of passengers boarding flights are up 6.5% over last summer.
Ranieri said this says a lot about the overall progress they’ve been making at the airport in expanding passenger outreach.
“It means that people are starting their journeys at home which we’re very excited to see, and it also means that passengers are seeing the offerings that we have here at CRW with advanced Breeze service as well as our partners with United, American, and Delta offering the flights that our passengers need,” Ranieri said.
Earlier this month, Yeager Airport came together with Governor Morrisey’s office, the Department of Tourism, the Charleston Area Alliance, the Kanawha County Commission and the City of Charleston to announce an agreement they all made with Breeze Airways to add up to five new flights over the next 24 months.