Orange County Airport

About

A General Aviation and Community Service airport.

Story

MISSION STATEMENT:

The Orange County Airport shall operate, maintain and preserve a high-quality aviation facility in Orange County Texas that:

- Is safe, secure and legal
- Delivers high-quality aviation services by providing customer-focused and
efficient operations, facilities, and staff.
- Responds to community preferences for private and corporate air service,
gateway image and landscaping, noise and storm water management.

VISION STATEMENT:

A safe, high-quality, attractive local airport with the leadership, operating skills and financial strength for successfully balancing community expectations to:

- Preserve and operate a community infrastructure asset, and
- Meet rising quality and environmental standards.
- "To be the Best Little Airport in the Country"

GOALS:

- Meet and exceed minimum safety, security and legal standards.
- Provide customer-focused, high-quality, efficient operations.
- Provide attractive, well-maintained aviation-related facilities.
- Maintain high quality staff required to achieve the Mission.
- Maintain the financial strength required to achieve the Mission.
- Maintain effective and efficient administrative functions.
- Respond to community preferences for private and corporate air
service,gateway image and landscaping, noise management and storm water
management.

HISTORY AND INFORMATION:

Orange County Airport was first constructed in 1946 on a portion of 450 acres owned by Mr. Edgar Brown, Jr. This Airport consisted of four (4) turf runways 130’ wide, ranging in length from 3,200’ to 5,000’, and a 100’ x 120’ aircraft storage hangar. The Airport operated in this manner until 1973 when the County purchased the Airport and an approximate 84 acres adjacent to the original property, increasing the total acreage to 534. In this same year, the primary runway (Runway 4/22) was paved and lighted (75’ x 3,800’), and a 120’ x 200’ apron and connecting taxiway was constructed.

Over the years, with the help of TxDOT, the Airport has continued to add and maintain necessary pavement and other amenities to keep the Airport a first class facility.

- 1978 a 200’ x 110’ hangar was constructed.
- 1984, 10 acres were acquired and the taxiway parallel to the primary runway
4/22 was extended, marked, and lighting was added.
- 1991, primary Runway 4/22 and parallel taxiway were extended 600’ x 75’.
- 1993, 2 acres of land were acquired for entrance road.
- 1999, a terminal building was constructed.
- 2004, 253 acres were acquired for runway extension.
- 2005, primary Runway 4/22 and parallel taxiway were extended 1,100’ x 75’.

Today, the Airport consists of approximately 385 acres, a two-runway system with Runway 4/22 (75’ x 5,500’) serving as the primary and a turf crosswind Runway 13/31 (50’ x 3,000’), a full-length parallel taxiway complimentary to the primary runway, two aprons, a terminal building, a 6-unit T-hangar (40 x 120’), a 13-unit T-Hangar (50’ x 280’), the County Mosquito Control Hangar (60’ x’ 120), a FBO/Corporate hanger (110’ x 200’), the Historical Brown Hangar (110’ x 170’), Jet-A and AVGAS/100LL above-ground storage facilities, experiences an estimated 11,000 annual operations, and bases approximately 30 aircraft of various sizes and complexities. The current FBO on the field is Sabine Aviation. Sabine Aviation provides various services for both based an itinerant aircraft, which range from fueling to catering to local transportation needs.

Orange County Airport, three (3) miles southwest of the Orange Central Business District, 115 miles east of Houston, and 240 miles west of New Orleans, is located within the “Golden Triangle” and Northern Humid Gulf Coastal Prairies and Texas-Louisiana Coastal Marshes ecological-regions of Southeastern Texas. It is classified as a General Aviation airport within the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) and a Community Service airport within the Texas Airport System Plan.

Orange County Airport is owned and operated by Orange County. The Airport has established an Airport Board which consists of a seven (7) member, volunteer panel. This Board provides recommendations to the Airport Supervisor, who has the day-today responsibility for overall operation of the Airport.