Celebrating 25 Years with Chief Development Officer, Shane Harbinson
It’s no secret that Austin is growing by leaps and bounds, and the Austin-Bergstrom Airport is no exception to that growth. For the past 25 years, AUS has found innovative solutions to address our region’s growing demand, including launching our Journey With AUS airport expansion program.
This month, we’re celebrating AUS’s 25th anniversary, and we would be remised to not take the time to revel on how far our, once little, airport has come. Today, we are hearing from one of our expansion program champions, our Chief Development Officer, Shane Harbinson. While Shane recently returned to AUS, he has been with AUS from the beginning and more than qualified to speak about our airport’s 25th anniversary!
Can you tell us a little about your history with AUS?
Yeah, it all started in early 1999, so I did spend some time at the original Austin airport, Robert Mueller. I started my career as an Airport Operations Coordinator. I was a coordinator for about two years, and then I joined the Planning and Engineering team as the Noise Officer. And then later on, I was an Airport Planner, and did that for a few years. During that time, I helped with the 2003 airport Master Plan. I didn’t start it but I did help get it to the finish line through work with the Federal Aviation Administration. Then I spent some time back in Airport Operations. And right around 2008, was asked to join Planning and Development as an assistant director to oversee development. I got to work with a lot of professional teams and construction teams for the development of the airport up until around 2019. Now I am honored to be the Chief Development Officer for AUS. It's gone by so fast. I still remember my first day on the job. The AUS journey is pretty personal to me.
You were instrumental in the Journey With AUS launch. What was your role in the expansion program?
Well, I would say that it was really just assisting Jennifer Williams and Lyn Estabrook; they did the Master Plan. Then it was helping the Environmental team to get approval for the environmental process. And really, at that point, I retired from the City of Austin. So, at the very beginning, it was just transitioning the Master Plan and getting the environmental approvals with their team to the point where we were ready to spool up all the professional and consulting teams that we have today. During Covid, it was really just trying to make sure we kept on track on the projects that were already started, and a lot of them were enabling projects to help set up the work that was going to be needed to expand the airport. It was the foundation of the work that's being done right now.
Can you give us a little behind the scenes peek on why Journey With AUS was launched?
It's the aggressive the growth of the Austin community and surrounding community. The infrastructure capacity was a constraint with what the demands are, what airlines needs are and, all the other components of the airport. In working with all of those different stakeholders, we identified that we’ve got to grow. We took the Master Plan and then implemented it while getting the professional teams together. We worked with the financial consultants and teams to determine what would be affordable and identified our scope to be within that affordable range and to be able to get the capacity needs that the airport has to provide for the demand of the community.
Will you tell us a little about what the Journey With AUS program brings to the community?
The development and expansion of Austin has always had this compact, connected feel. It’s crucial to consider how to connect the various neighborhoods and communities to all the numerous modes of transportation. Putting the infrastructure in allows the capacity for us to grow more airline services and give those new destinations many national or international destinations. So really having more gates and more infrastructure allows us to create that connection for the Austin community.
With the perspective of going away and then coming back to AUS, what are your thoughts on the expansion program now?
The expansion program has evolved; it's much more defined. When I left, the building blocks of where elements were going to be located based on need were developed. Since then, they’ve defined and shape those blocks into what the infrastructure will look like. With that comes a better understanding of what the cost are, what enabling projects are needed to move forward, and what infrastructure needs to be built first before additional infrastructure can be implemented. Really what's changed is that it's much more defined from when I left, when it was just a Master Plan. Now it's a program.
Looking back at the last 25 years, do any memorable projects stick out? And if so, which ones?
My favorite project will always be the Noise Mitigation Program. That was about a 13 year program, but it was outside the AUS fence; it was not on airport property. We were going into the noise sensitive neighborhoods to do acquisition and relocation. We got to meet the families that are around the airport and experience their appreciation of the City working with them to get relocation. There were a lot of challenges. It took longer than anyone wanted, but they understood that it was a funding need. We were hitting the most sensitive areas first and then working our way out. The next step was making sure that land use compatibility regulations were in place to protect the airport's ability to grow. Looking at the noise program, I think Austin has one of the best noise programs in the US!
Looking ahead at the next 25 years, what's next for the Journey With AUS program at AUS?
It's building off of this airport expansion development program. When it’s complete there will be another Master Plan that picks up. We’ll have to ask ourselves, what are the next elements that need to be expanded? Where are the constraints? That’s our job. If we do this one right, the next program team that will be in my seat will be much more methodical and it’ll be easy for them to implement that expansion program. The new airport project team did a great job, so for the last 25 years it's been easier for us to add capacity and grow. So, we want to set up the same thing that was given to us in 1999.