Wed, Sep 13, 2023
Native Son
Pieter Miller has been named the new deputy executive director of the Salina, Kansas Airport Authority. Mr. Miller will work under longtime executive director Tim Rogers.
Miller stated: “My dad was an aviation enthusiast. I spent a lot of time at the Salina airport. I grew up trying to bum rides from local pilots. I was willing to wash their airplanes if they would give me a ride.”
Miller’s plan worked—on occasion.
A certificated Private Pilot, Miller served 14-years as the manager of Hutchinson, Kansas’s Hutchinson Regional Airport (HUT).
“Hutchinson is where my house is, and Salina is where my home is,” Miller remarked, adding: “I’m happy to be coming back.”
Miller is scheduled to commence executing the duties of his new position on 02 October 2023.
Salina Airport Authority executive director Tim Rogers set forth: “Pieter’s skill set is unique and necessary for the amount of new construction and development that is scheduled to occur at the Salina Regional Airport (SLN) and Industrial Center. It’s a busy place and there is a lot going on at one time.”
Projects upon which the Salina Airport Authority intends to imminently embark include:
- Construction of a 58,000-square-foot, $41-million studio and learning facility dubbed the K-Aires Center—an acronym denoting Kansas Advanced Immersive Research for Emerging Systems. The airport authority will lease the K-Aires center to the State of Kansas.
- Construction of multiple 98,000-square-foot Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) hangars on SLN’s north ramp.
- Establishment—by dint of a $3.325-million state grant and in cooperation with the Salina Area Chamber of Commerce, Salina Community Economic Development Organization, K-State Salina, and Salina Area Technical College—of an Aviation Innovation and Maintenance Center for purpose of recruiting and training aviation maintenance technicians.
- Facilitation of projected near-future increases in air-traffic via the undertaking of a $7.5-million rehabilitation of SLN’s crosswind runway and a $12-million expansion of the airport’s M.J. Kennedy Air Terminal.
- Guiding the remedial action phase of a $70-million cleanup of the site of the DOD’s former Schilling Air Force Base.
“Pieter will assume a major role in these projects,” Mr. Rogers asserted. “He will also lead new airport and airport industrial growth initiatives."
Miller explained: “I have been involved in Hutch [Hutchinson] with landfill and environmental cleanup projects and I’m becoming familiar with issues at the Schilling Project. I really haven’t had to deal with scheduled air service here. There’s certainly a learning curve, but I’ll be working with Salina’s air service consultant Gary Foss to help me get up to speed.”
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