AIRPORT ASCENDING
Hall says Chattanooga airport ‘headed back to a better normal’
Jim Hall says the Chattanooga Airport is “headed back to a better normal” as its passenger traffic continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Hall, who last year was elevated from vice chairman to chairman of the Airport Authority, said the airport has a $28 million expansion underway to the passenger terminal that’s slated to finish in 2024. That’s coming after work was earlier completed on the airport’s first parking garage, he said.
“With the plans we have, as we look toward to 2024 with the terminal expansion and new gates, things are headed in the right direction,” Hall said.
The Chattantooga resident joined the airport panel after having served as head of the National Transportation Safety Board from 1995 to 2001. He left that job just months before the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center.
Hall previously worked in the Cabinet of Tennessee Gov. Ned McWherter, including as director of the state’s Planning Office for five years, and has worked on Capital Hill in Washington as a legislative aide for former Democratic Sens. Albert Gore Sr., Ed Muskie and Harlan Mathews.
An attorney with a law degree from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Hall has been chairman of the Washington, D.C. firm Hall & Associates for more than two decades. There, he counsels a range of domestic and international clients in the areas of legislative affairs, crisis management, transportation safety and security.
Hall said he’s hopeful that the timing of the airport expansion at Lovell Field will coincide with the airlines being able to add more planes to their fleets and increase hiring to remedy pilot and other staffing shortages.
“We can look to the airport to be in a prime position to get more direct flights,” he said. “Because of our location with growth in North Georgia … good things are ahead for our airport.”
“With the plans we have, as we look toward to 2024 with the terminal expansion and new gates, things are headed in the right direction,”
– JIM HALL, CHAIRMAN OF THE CHATTANOOGA METROPOLITAN AIRPORT AUTHORITY