Aviation was in the forefront of significant news for Wood County last week.

The official “inauguration” of the 1,000-foot extension to Collins Field at the Wood County Airport was held  Saturday morning, while the significance of that event was outlined by several speakers at the airport board’s annual dinner and update the previous Thursday.

Featured on Saturday was the team that performed the aerial missing-man formation over the Mineola veterans parade that morning. Those at Saturday’s ribbon cutting ceremony were treated to several flyovers prior to their downtown event.

Only some early-morning fog – that cleared in plenty of time for Saturday’s event – prevented the Texas Dept. of Transportation’s aviation division from bringing in its jet

Plenty of other aircraft were on hand for the event, from Brian Steck’s short take off and landing competition plane to the UT Health air ambulance which is housed at the airport when not parked in front of the hospital in Quitman.

State Rep. Cole Hefner also flew his twin in from Mt. Pleasant to participate in the ceremony.

Hefner got the ball rolling for the runway extension when he managed to get an $8 million appropriation into the 2023 state budget.

At Thursday’s dinner, airport board Chairman Randy Batemen said the extended runway is “The key to open the door to our future.”

Hefner added, “I’m excited to see what it does for Wood County.”

TxDOT Aviation Director Dan Harmon did make it to Thursday’s event and repeated the phrase that he likes to tell his counterparts at TxDOT in the highway division. A mile of highway allows you to travel a mile while a mile of runway allows you to travel around the world.

He added, not only will it allow people to travel around the word but also for the world to come to Wood County.

The airport will be an economic driver for the community, he said, and how successful it is is a direct result of the support it receives.

State Sen. Bryan Hughes said in the beginning many questioned the need for another airport in the county, but there was a vision for what it could be someday.

Consultant Tom Mullins, who is working with several Wood County entities, recounted the success Tyler has had diversifying its economy. While Texas growth has been focused on the triangle formed by Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin-San Antonio areas, he said that the peak of the triangle has been moving eastward.

Airport manager John Wisdom concluded: “We did it.”

He thanked everyone who played a role in making the long-term dream a reality, adding, “We will be good stewards of this investment.”