Weekly update — Dec. 5

Dirt work starts this week on runway

A few years down the road, a visit to the Clovis Municipal Airport could bring a body scan or patdown.

City Manager Joe Thomas said the city is looking for airlines that could possibly serve Clovis to either Denver International Airport or Dallas/Forth Worth.

“If we do that,” Thomas said, “we have to have TSA on this end.”

Thomas said he doesn’t know what manpower or equipment TSA would bring in. He said the TSA requirement was one factor that kept Clovis from negotiating service to Denver in 2007.

Dirt work is set to start this week on an 1,800-foot northeast runway extension, bringing the overall space to 7,200 feet.

A 2006 survey showed the airport, which currently offers 12 round-trip flights to and from Albuquerque each week through Great Lakes Airlines, received enough traffic to justify the extension to accommodate commercial jets. And that was before Cannon Air Force Base’s mission resulted in requests for service to the east.

The runway extension is set for completion in September.

— Kevin Wilson