![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022-04-12-Chris-White-Named-Southeast-Chapter-of-the-American-Association-of-Airport-Executives-2022-Aviation-Professional-of-the-Year-edit.jpg\")
The Chapter serves 12 states in the Southeast as well as\nPuerto Rico, Virgin Islands & Caribbean and South American countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing his leadership, outstanding commitment to the\naviation community as well as his local community, White was nominated by his\nstaff without his knowledge. The staff noted that when White came to the County\nin 2009, the airport was reporting financial and business losses and the\nterminal dated to the 1970\u2019s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He was credited with working with the Onslow County Board of\nCommissioners, the FAA and NC DOT\u2019s Division of Aviation to build a new state\nof the art terminal complex that would be more efficient and welcoming. \u201cI am\nhumbled and sincerely appreciative of this recognition and the credit truly\nbelongs to our wonderful and talented team at OAJ,\u201d said White. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Six years in the making, the new Albert J. Ellis Passenger\nTerminal complex has been the subject of many state and national awards and is\nfrequently cited as Onslow County\u2019s front door. Use has dramatically increased\nas the new terminal welcomes more than 350-thousand passengers annually. As\npart of the campus, a new executive terminal opened in 2015 and the County\u2019s\nfirst Air Traffic Control Tower was added in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White was praised by the group for growing the economic\nimpact of the airport noting the growth from 2015 of about $191 million a year,\nto over $565 million for 2021. The airport supports jobs for about 34 hundred.\nHe worked to win more than $50 million in federal and state discretionary\ngrants, ultimately adding over $60 million in assets to the community without\ncost to the local property taxpayers. The Airport Redevelopment Program was\nawarded the 2016 Commercial Airport Project of the year by the same\norganization that has now named him Professional of the Year. He was also\ncredited with leading the Airport through several natural disasters as well as\nthe recent pandemic. It was noted that Onslow\u2019s airport has experienced an\nexceptional recovery, including some record setting months, after the\npandemic\u2019s initial showdown. His staff attributed the sustainment of the\nairport during the pandemic to the leadership of White.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/AlbertEllisAirport-tower.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nMost recently the airport was awarded a Small Community Air\nService Development Program Grant to attract new airline service as well as to\nincrease current services. The Airport has also been allocated $29 million from\nthe State budget to extend the runway and taxiway which will increase the\nopportunity for longer flights, larger aircraft and improved aircraft\nperformance and safety. White was praised for his expertise and devotion to the\nairport in achieving these new benefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White has focused efforts on enhancing services offered to\nAirport guests with a focus on military service members by adding amenities\nsuch as the USO and changing rooms to the new facility and worked with the\nGovernment Services Administration to expand the City Pairs program from 6\ncities to over 60 making travel easier and more cost effective for the Marines\nand other service members who fly out of Ellis Airport. They and others also\nbenefit from a NC Digital Library Kiosk which was the first placed at an\nairport in the State. Operated by the Onslow County Library, it allows\npassengers and visitors to digitally check out ebooks, videos and other\nmaterials at no cost. He moved the Airport from a financially negative position\nto a fully self-sufficient County operated enterprise while also generating\nabout $20 million annually in state and local taxes that help offset property\ntaxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
White also has championed the \u201cArt in the Airport\u201d program\nby working with Onslow County Schools which hosted students to display art and\nfor musical groups to perform at the airport. The program will now expand to\nthe Jacksonville-Onslow Arts Council. He is active in local transportation\nplanning groups, economic development activities, and serves in leadership\nroles with state and regional airport groups. He lectures at NC State\nUniversity and makes frequent presentations to legislators and groups on behalf\nof aviation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chris White, A.A.E., Director of Onslow County\u2019s Albert J. Ellis Airport has been named 2022 Airport Professional of the Year by the Southeast Chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives. The award was given during the annual meeting of the organization in Memphis last week. The Chapter serves 12 states in the Southeast as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":21763,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-north-carolina"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/AlbertEllisAirport-Night-edit.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21765,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21761\/revisions\/21765"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}