RIDGELAND, S.C. (WTOC) – Claude Dean Airport is poised for a big year\u2014and big upgrades\u2014in Jasper County.<\/p>\n
The Ridgeland airport opened its gates to the public for tours and demonstrations on Thursday as officials outlined several expansion projects aimed at improving safety, accommodating growth, and boosting workforce development with local students.<\/p>\n
Airport Traffic<\/p>\n
Airport Manager Leonard Sansone, who officially stepped into the role in January, says traffic is already surging. <\/p>\n
About 7,000 flights have arrived or departed so far this year, and the airport is trending toward more than 25,000 flight operations by the end of 2026.<\/p>\n
Airport Upgrades<\/p>\n
\u201cAirports are things that always grow,\u201d Sansone said. \u201cThey are always going to be expanding; the growth never ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
That growth includes multiple upgrades across the airport\u2019s roughly 300-acre footprint, which currently includes one runway and four taxi lanes. <\/p>\n
Officials say plans are in motion to widen some taxi lanes, build additional hangars, and update the pilots\u2019 lounge.<\/p>\n
One of the most notable additions is a new helipad outfitted with runway-style lighting\u2014designed to create a clearer, safer landing zone for LifeFlight helicopters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crews know exactly where that helicopter is going to be positioned,\u201d Sansone said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s going to make it a lot safer experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claude Dean Airport also continues to be a key economic driver, bringing over $4 million in impact to Jasper County, according to airport officials.<\/p>\n
Several of the airport\u2019s upcoming projects are already funded by the county, with work expected to begin later this year.<\/p>\n
Focus on Workforce Development<\/p>\n
Along with infrastructure improvements, the airport is also partnering with the Jasper County School District through the district\u2019s Career and Technical Education (CTE) program\u2014introducing students to aviation-related opportunities and training.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis opens up that avenue and adds a different flair to our programs,\u201d said Dr. Stephanie Hart, the district\u2019s CTE director.<\/p>\n
Thursday\u2019s spotlight was on the district\u2019s drone program, which has won back-to-back state championships and is preparing to compete nationally this summer. <\/p>\n
Officials say the airport partnership helps students connect classroom learning to real-world aviation careers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur drone program has just really taken off,\u201d Hart said. \u201cA lot of students are interested in drones; they\u2019re interested in aviation. This excites them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Airport leaders say the school partnership is still new, but they\u2019re already exploring additional training programs to connect more students to careers in aviation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RIDGELAND, S.C. (WTOC) – Claude Dean Airport is poised for a big year\u2014and big upgrades\u2014in Jasper County. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14758,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11139,11145,53,3154,11141,182,11144,11140,2845,11142,11143],"class_list":{"0":"post-14757","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anthropic","8":"tag-airport","9":"tag-airport-upgrades","10":"tag-anthropic","11":"tag-anthropic-claude","12":"tag-career-and-technical-education","13":"tag-claude","14":"tag-claude-dean-airport","15":"tag-cte","16":"tag-drones","17":"tag-jasper-county","18":"tag-ridgeland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}