I recently flew to Aspen, Colorado for a family friend’s wedding.  One of the other guys that flew with us asked if we had noticed the seven Falcon jets at the airport – I did not even realize what they were.

Our traveling companion went on to explain that you cannot land planes like those on Hilton Head Island.  In Aspen, people have expensive homes and they want to be able to get to their homes at a minute’s notice.

I started thinking about how our short runway (the shortest commercial runway in the United States) needs to be lengthened.  It has been a hot political topic, but most every Realtor on Hilton Head feels it would benefit the real estate community to have a more accessible airport.

People who have airplanes want to be able to get to their homes; and at the present time they cannot do that directly – they have to fly into Savannah which makes it a little harder.

We were recently working with someone who was looking at a $7.5 million dollar home and was going to fly his jet to Hilton Head to look at it.  When this particular buyer discovered that he could not fly directly into Hilton Head, he canceled his trip altogether because he did not want to buy a place that he could not directly access. 

This would not only benefit the real estate market, but the people who live on the island as well.  In the long run, I think this would benefit everyone in one way or another and would bring more value to Hilton Head Island.