How big is big enough?

To meet growing demand at Palm Beach International Airport, officials are proposing parallel runways. But what happens if even that’s not enough?

That’s the question an advisory committee broached last month as it contemplated the start of a 10-year process to create two parallel runways for commercial jets at the landlocked airport. 

Why it’s important: A post-pandemic boom has airport numbers flying through the roof, buoyed by private jet traffic. Even if growth slows, officials say the airport will reach flight capacity by 2028 to 2032. That is several years, they say, before the second runway can be expanded.

What’s happening? The in-city airport is close to thriving neighborhoods. It predates Interstate 95, which forms its eastern border. Neighbors worry that continued growth will endanger their homes.

• The second runway, now 3,214 feet long and 75 feet wide, would be expanded to 8,000 feet long and 100 feet wide to run alongside the existing 10,000-foot main runway, as Stet News reported April 23 here. A crosswind runway would be reduced by nearly half to 4,000 feet.

How it helps: While parallel, the runways would be too close together to enable simultaneous takeoffs and landings. But a second commercial runway would speed things up, avoiding debilitating delays, airport officials say.

“As demands increase, delays grow exponentially,” airport consultant Dave Ramacorti told the Citizens Committee on Airport Noise (CCAN) in unveiling the plan. “A 10 percent increase in demand could double or triple the level of delay at the airport.”

As long as there’s capacity, the airport can’t turn away commercial and private aircraft, Airports Director Laura Beebe said. 

What they’re saying: “What troubles me is that the doors are open to everybody and anybody who wants to come here. As long as you can gate them, you can take them,” CCAN Chairperson Nancy Pullum said. “There is no end point.”

Added board member Lew Crampton: “This is going to get hot and heavy.”