The city's long-range plan for Dallas Executive Airport would add 1,000 feet to its shorter runway, build out hangars for business jets and set aside room on both sides of the field for vertiports that could serve electric air taxis, according to a memo prepared for a City Council committee.
The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee receives the update at its 1 p.m. meeting Monday, Oct. 19. It is a briefing memo from Assistant City Manager Robin Bentley, not an item for a vote.
Why the plan exists
The council accepted a TxDOT grant for the work in January 2025, and the Department of Aviation started it that September. The memo says 95% of the cost was covered by federal infrastructure law money administered by the FAA and TxDOT's aviation division, with the engineering firm Garver leading the work under contract to TxDOT.
Airports have to keep a current layout plan to remain eligible for federal funding.
What it proposes
- Runway 17-35: now 3,800 feet long, per the plan's narrative report, it would grow by a combined 1,000 feet on its north and south ends to 4,800 feet. The memo cautions that because of the cost, money would have to be available and future demand would have to justify the project before it moves ahead. The airport's previous master plan showed a similar extension.
- Hangars: the report counts 681,300 square feet of box and T-hangars and says they are full. The plan calls for at least 321,000 more square feet, much of it, the memo says, for larger business jets or aviation businesses such as maintenance and avionics shops.
- Taxiways: several would be moved or realigned and new ones built to meet FAA standards and add capacity.
- Air taxis: standalone vertiport sites are shown on the east and west sides. Early operations would use the existing apron, taxiways, runways and terminal, the memo says.
Traffic and money
The report counts 378 aircraft based at the field in 2025, including 55 jets and 12 helicopters, and its preferred forecast reaches 427 by 2045. Takeoffs and landings are forecast to climb from 91,556 in the base year to 118,841 by 2045.
