KILLEEN, Texas — The Killeen Fort Hood Regional Airport has been working on rebranding for months now, after Fort Hood's name changed to Fort Cavazos.
The cost to get it down will be in the tens of thousands after factoring in design and construction costs.
It also takes manpower and time before any of that can even begin.
Airport officials said they have spent months researching and conducting surveys on how the community feels about the airport and its idea to rebrand.
”To try to get an idea of what their thoughts of the airport were, what the thought our strengths and weaknesses were, and also what they thought of the name change,” said Executive Director of Aviation with the City of Killeen, Mike Wilson.
This stage of rebranding is mostly about the name change — a matter that has mixed reviews from the community.
”I’ve been here my whole life,” said local resident, Bianco Ivey.
"I feel like it should stay the same, or, keep it Killeen and Fort Cavazos — change it to that.”
One former city council member said she is hearing mixed opinions as well.
”There are a group of people that believe taking Fort Hood out of the name erases part of that connection to the installation and part of history from the Killeen area,” said former Killeen city council member, Mellisa Brown.
While she believes it will be good for the city to drop the installation from the name all together, she has found a third group.
”A group who says it doesn't really matter because it doesn’t change the airport,” Brown said.
“Until the services increase, until there are more airlines, it’s still the same airport.”
Most of the traffic at Killeen airport is connected to military and business travel and not leisure.
The lack of airlines and high prices is an issue the airport says they are well aware of.
”Where we lose out is, if you try to compare our American Airlines prices out of here to a Southwest, or Frontier, or somebody out of Austin, that’s where can’t compete,” Wilson said.
The Killeen City Council is expected to discuss the new name at next week's meeting.
Airport management said they are working on getting smaller airlines to fly out of here with hopes it will help boost leisure travel.
