Killeen City Council discusses airport name change

Killeen Daily Herald
Kevin Limiti
September 19, 2023

The Killeen City Council discussed Tuesday changing the name of the Killeen-Fort Hood Regional Airport at a council workshop meeting.

The two names suggested by a consulting group and Executive Director of Aviation Mike Wilson included the Greater Killeen Regional Airport and the Killeen Regional Airport.

The council heard a presentation on the name change, which included the process of what the consulting group called the “Rebrand Program.”

The initiative is an effort to drive more passengers to fly in and out of the Killeen airport as opposed to major ones such as Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, according to a city staff report.

During the citizens comments, resident Sean Price spoke out against renaming the airport.

“I’m going to ask that you stop erasing history,” Price said. “Leave it alone.”

Wilson said a lot of the reasons for changing the name is because of confusion over whether the airport is associated with the military.

“Since Fort Hood no longer exists, this an opportunity for the city to change its name,” Wilson said of the joint-use airport. “This gives us an opportunity and the council an opportunity to correct an issue we have and come up with a name that reflects the current environment.”

Jeremiah Gerald, senior director of Aviation Week Network, hired as a consultant for Killeen, conducted a presentation about the renaming of the airport.

“I’ve done multiple airport rebrand programs in my career,” Gerald said, explaining that the rebranding process is about defining the airport for the community.

Gerald said they are currently in stage one of the process.

“We’re going to refresh the logo with the new name,” Gerald said. “The brand is only good as the restrictions you put around it. So we’re going through a brand implementation process.”

Gerald said they are going to roll out brand marketing after the name is chosen, wrapped up in a new logo. He said they already started revamping the website.

“We have to re-educate these customers as they come in because Fort Hood is in the name of the airport,” he said. “We have to think more about what is the purpose of the airport, what are we trying to do in the name of the airport? Who are we trying to attract? And it’s more than just the local people, right? And we serve a large group of people, ultimately globally for this region.”

There are four stages of the renaming process which includes the research stage — including market research, passenger intercept, stakeholder surveys and focus group sessions — which the consultant went over during Tuesday’s meeting.

According to the presentation, there were a total of 41 passenger intercept surveys collected between June and August 2023 and 81 stakeholder surveys during the same time frame.

Killeen has also conducted soft-market research through sites such as Yelp, Google and Facebook.

Some of the insights taken from the surveys were that people like that the airport is convenient and close with easy parking, friendly staff and clean facilities, among other things.

However, they didn’t like that there were staffing shortages at the airport, the canceled and delayed flights, expensive fares and inconsistent customer support, among other things.

“It was hard to find negative feedback on the experiences passengers are having,” Gerald said. “I think it’s just a testament of how the environment at the airport … they’re doing a great job.”

He also said the fares at the Killeen airport are similar to the Austin market.

Wilson said they have not received any negative comments from Fort Cavazos regarding the issue of renaming the airport.

“I think they fully understand what we’re doing and are supportive of it,” Wilson said.

Councilman Riakos Adams said he thinks the process they’ve gone through is “perfect.”

Councilman Michael Boyd said they were presented with “two great options, but he said the Greater Killeen Regional Airport was “redundant.”

“I like Killeen Regional Airport because it’s the most clear and concise,” he said. “That’s just my personal opinion.”

Councilman Jose Segarra said he likes the “Greater Killeen Regional Airport” name, but said the three-letter identifier of GRK may confuse people.

“I don’t think it ever matched before anyways. I don’t think it’s going to matter,” he said. “I think a lot of people outside the immediate area of Killeen identified Killeen-Fort Hood as military, and so removing that ‘Fort Hood’ I think will help.”

He said hopefully they will be able to attract another airline. “I know we’ve been working hard on that,” he said.

Wilson said just a few hours earlier, the city had a conversation with an airline, but he didn’t say which one.

Councilman Joseph Solomon said he was “ so impressed” after touring the airport.

“It’s a great atmosphere out there. It’s a good airport,” he said.

He asked Wilson how long it would take to brand the airport after the name is chosen.

Wilson said it will be a 45- to 60-day process with the Federal Aviation Administration before it becomes official.

But if the city changed the airport’s three-letter identifier it would take more than a year.

“I don’t see the GRK part changing,” he said.

The letters GRK reference Robert Gray Army Airfield and Killeen. The airfield is the military’s component of the joint-use airport.

Wilson said the survey respondents were sent to various chambers of commerce in the area. “That’s where we came up with the lay person’s comments,” he said. “It was important to us that we didn’t just jump into this thing, that we reached out to a broad cross-section of the community and tried to get as much input as we could.”

Wilson said he could support either renaming recommendation.

“I just like the name Killeen first,” Mayor Debbie Nash-King said, noting it aligns with the city’s comprehensive plan.

This item will be up for a vote next week, according to the agenda.