UPDATED: Injured football player ‘responding’, but still in critical condition
September 30, 2015
Alfreda Richoux
October 6, 2015
The local oil and gas industry has been in a bit of a lull.
But you’d never be able to guess that based on the work going on right now at the South Lafourche Leonard Miller Jr. Airport.
Expansion projects continue to go up throughout the airport – even as the economy continues its slide.
Port Fourchon Executive Director Chett Chiasson said the local facility, which is located on Airport Road in Galliano between East 139th and East 141st streets, is a huge plus to anyone affiliated with the oilfield industry in the Houma-Thibodaux area and beyond. Last year, the airport handled more than 23,000 flights, which transported hundreds of thousands of workers from dry land safely to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico round-trip.
“The airport is such a huge part of what we’re able to do,” Chiasson said. “Companies are coming in and are investing a lot of money, and we’re grateful for that, certainly. The airport is growing at a very steady rate. That’s something that we’ve been very happy to see and that we expect to continue.”
The airport’s growth has been non-stop and continuous throughout the past several months.
Chiasson said the airport recently completed a $3 million ramp expansion project that was spearheaded because of some of the other expansion efforts that are going on around the airport. Before that got done, the airport also received enhanced drainage, the director said.
“(The expansion) is basically just giving us extra parking areas for planes,” Chiasson said. “It gives planes access to other areas in the airport. We’re happy to report that that’s done and has been fully completed. Having that is a huge coup to our facility.”
The port director said RLC, leading privately-owned helicopter company, is currently going through an expansion project at the airport, as well. The large-scale helicopter operator already lifts-off out of Galliano close to 6,000 times a year. That number will be raised significantly when their expansion efforts are completed.
“RLC is moving pretty quickly,” Chiasson said. “They’re building more helipads for their helicopters and are leasing more property from us in the process, as well.”
But the biggest project going on at the airport is one that is in its final stages. That would be the $29 million job that Chevron is working on that would move all of the company’s Gulf of Mexico logistics operations to the airport – a project that would move 6,000 workers per month through the airport, and would almost double the activity the facility sees in month.
Chiasson said the facility is in its “completion stages” and should be finished in the very near future.
The project will cement Chevron’s commitment to South Louisiana, according to company vice president Warner Williams.
He said in addition to operating all of its offshore flights out the local airport, the company will also be able to move workers home quicker in the event of special circumstances like a hurricane, oil spill or any other unexpected events. Right now, Chevron uses a facility in Leeville – an airport the business has worked with for more than 50 years. Once the facility in Galliano is complete, all of the company’s Gulf business will be transferred from there to the Galliano site, which will drastically increase the traffic that will flow through that area’s skies.
“This isn’t just a facility, but it’s really the cornerstone of our business in the Gulf of Mexico and certainly a major part of the future of our company,” Williams said. “We’re proud to have our new airbase in Galliano.”
Elected officials are proud, as well.
Lafourche Parish President Charlotte Randolph has been a fan of the Chevron facility from Day 1, touting at an initial ribbon-cutting ceremony that it was “a great day for Lafourche Parish.”
She has since said that when a major company like Chevron invests in your community, it often attracts others to do the same in the future – the No. 1 cause for her excitement.
“From here, so much more can happen,” Randolph said.
So much more – that’s an amazing thought when one considers how far things have come. The port took over the airport from parish government in 2001. Since that time, flight traffic has increased by more than 4,000 percent – from just a few hundred flights a year to more than 23,000.
Once Chevron’s facility is up and operational, that increase will be even more.
“It’s amazing to see,” Chiasson said. “Great things are definitely happening at the airport.”
