Touching Bases: South Texas Airport Spends $2.1 Million

With its 5,000-ft runway, Weslaco (Texas) Mid Valley Airport (T65) may not be a beehive of jet activity, but the local authority recently spent $2.1 million in improvements to attract business to the field. Located about 30 mi west of Brownsville, near the Mexican border, Weslaco expanded its parking apron to 280,000 sq ft, added two new taxiways and installed pilot-controlled lighting. Also, the single Runway 13-31 now has precision approach path indicators (PAPI). Ten percent of the funds came from the city, with the remainder coming from the Texas department of transportation and the FAA. The airport has VOR/DME and GPS instrument approaches.