Luray Airport lands major upgrade

Until recently, planes flying in and out of Luray Caverns Airport were serviced by a terminal that could most kindly be described as humble.

The white, clapboard 945-square-foot structure, which dated back to the turn of the last century, had once housed chickens and “was more or less falling down,” recalls Edwin P. Markowitz, longtime secretary-treasurer of the Luray-Page County Airport Authority, which manages the airport.

However, that dilapidated structure was replaced in October 2024 by a new $4.3 million, 4,582-square-foot terminal with a spacious lobby and amenities including a pilot’s lounge and conference and flight-planning rooms.

The airport celebrated the terminal’s grand opening in April.

The financing for the upgrade was complex enough “to cause your head to explode,” Markowitz says. The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided a $4.26 million loan covering the local share of the terminal financing, plus the 2023 construction of 18 new hangars and refinancing of existing ones. The state also provided a $1.01 million grant for the hangar project. In addition, the Federal Aviation Administration and Virginia Department of Aviation together provided $3.85 million in grants for terminal construction and a new parking lot.

Virginia’s U.S. senators, Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, were instrumental in securing federal help for the upgrades. “Small airports like this one are critical to supporting emergency services, connecting local businesses to the larger economy and more,” the senators said in a joint statement.

A 2016 economic study backs up the senators’ assertion about the airport’s regional value, finding that Luray Caverns Airport added more than $2 million annually to the local economy, a figure that Markowitz expects to be much larger after the results of a 2025 study are released.

Since the airport opened in the early 1970s, it has grown from 40 acres to 120 acres, and it now logs about 10,000 annual takeoffs and landings, many of them tourism-related because of the airport’s proximity to the caverns and Shenandoah

National Park. Except for some military usage, all its air traffic is noncommercial. Forty-four planes estimated to be worth more than $10 million are housed on-site, and the airport now has 43 hangars.

“We’re very pleased with the outcome” of the project, Markowitz says, “and grateful for the support we received.”