Winchester Regional Airport officials report $40 million-plus in recent investment, highlight terminal, workforce studies

Winchester City Finance Committee members heard an update from Winchester Regional Airport Authority Chairman Bill Pfeiffer and airport representative Nick Sabo on capital projects, recent grants and economic development plans.

The airport has attracted what airport staff described as more than $40 million in public and private investment over roughly six years. "It's a pretty staggering amount there, about $24,000,000 actually," Sabo said, adding that a recently completed $6,700,000 project and a recent $7,200,000 state and FAA grant for a taxiway relocation raise the total to "over $40,000,000 worth of capital investment at the airport in about 6 years." Pfeiffer said the authority's requests to the city for operating support have fallen dramatically over the last five to six years.

Why it matters: Airport leaders and the committee framed the investments as leveraging relatively small city contributions into much larger state, federal and private funding packages. Sabo told the committee the airport's…