John C. Tune Airport Master Plan Update

Aerial of John C. Tune general aviation airport.

John C. Tune Airport is a general aviation airport located approximately five miles northwest of downtown Nashville, which serves as a reliever airport for the Nashville International Airport. Tremendous growth at the airport in corporate traffic, based aircraft, fuel sales, and hangar demand prompted the need to update the airport’s master plan in an effort to effectively respond to the regional aviation needs. The goal of the update was to help ensure that airport facilities would be adequate to meet both short- and long-term demand for aviation services, and serve as a management guide for the implementation of necessary improvements to meet both existing and forecast growth in aviation demand over a 20-year period.

PBS&J was selected to conduct the master plan update, which included an inventory of the existing facilities, forecasts of growth, and cost estimates for additional development. The existing facilities were evaluated against projected demand, and necessary improvements to landside and airside facilities were identified. Once the potential environmental impacts of various development alternatives were assessed, an airport layout plan (ALP) set, staging plan, and cost estimates were developed. A unique goal of this master plan update was to provide a forecast of general aviation activity within the greater Nashville metropolitan area. Rather than limit the projections to Tune Airport only, PBS&J provided a regional forecast, which included Nashville International Airport, Cornelia Fort Airpark, Sumner County Regional Airport, Lebanon Municipal Airport, and Smyrna Airport.  Additionally, a Geographic Information System (GIS) task was completed to integrate the master plan data into the Airport Authority’s existing GIS system.