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I am a "futures" person when it comes to land. It only makes sense that if there is land contiguous to one's property; it should be bought rather than wait and wish you had years later. Go for it PTI!!!

Of course the airport needs to expand to service all the shopping centers and business that are 'growing' the County. Buy up all the land 'contiguous' to PTI property; never mind if those people have to be forced to sell by 'eminent domain', or have their contiguous home lifestyle deconstructed in the process. After all, expansion is for the greater good, and isn't that what this country is all about?

I am hoping that the previous poster was being sarcastic. If not I am becoming fearful for the future of this country.

This country was founded on individual liberty, not the "greater good"! Who decides the "greater good"?

PTI already had a chance to purchase these properties through the use of eminent domain during the contentious process of shoe horning the FedEx project in an area that had already been allowed to be developed as residential. I am sure there were many folks in the surrounding area that wish that the PTI had been forced to buy them out by the noise analysis studies, but the studies are set up deliberately so that the airports can effectively take the neighbors property value away without having to pay for it.

PTI will just wait until the FedEx fiasco lowers the surrounding property values and go in and buy it at pennies on the dollar. Whose "greater good" will this serve?

PTIA already has several times the area that Midway has that provides good service for which it was intended - passenger, thank you! PTIA should concentrate on passenger service that operates at reasonable times so we don't have to drive to RDU or C'lotte to get flights!

This transshipment function operating in the middle of the night that FedEx will provide should be performed at the Global Transpark instead of in the middle of this residential area. PTIA already has service for overnight shipments, and ones that are not direct could go to the Transpark for transshipment.

All of this talk of an "aerotropolis" around the airport is misguided. Sure, there is need for some overnight shipments, but as pointed out this service is available for truly urgent transport, and much other distribution can be made more efficiently and environmentally friendly by ground transportation, particularly by rail that made Greensboro the Gate City.

Expanding our airport may seem like a good idea but ultimately that solution stays inside of a very small creative box. Fuel cost are only going to increase. More and more airlines are going to find themselves in the "red" and choose against offering flights to the Triad. We'll be left with a once-hopeful airport and hundreds of acres of concrete. Do not invest in more property PTI - invest in other alternative transportation and fuels.

Yup, I knew my earlier post was too far away from this paper's political bent to get posted. Truth hurts, huh?

Can someone please explain what is "International" about Piedmont Triad International Airport?

If this country dont get crude oil prices under control trust me you want have to expand
the airport or anything else for that matter.

Wayne, we have no record of you posting anything else here. If you read the comments of others you would be hard pressed to argue that we disallow any opinion.

That's interesting. When I wrote it, and clicked on 'post', I got a screen that said my comment was being held for moderation.
My original post:
"It would be better for private businesses to buy the land and lease it to PTI simply because once the land is bought by PTI, the government stops collecting property taxes on it, and we the over taxed and generally ignored taxpayers will have to make up for it by having our taxes raised instead. (Our property taxes alone are projected to go up a whopping 18% - or more - in the next four years.)
Either way, PTI will get the land it wants, regardless of what the people and voters want, as long as developers like the seriously voted out of office former county commissioner Walt Cockerham sit on the board."

Where will the water come from for all the expansion? Past seasons show we are already over expanded. Does the “international airport expert” have an answer to this also?

How much of a bribe, oh pardon me incentive, will we be giving other businesses to come. No one gave me an incentive to move to Greensboro.

Why should I we be giving incentives or give up land to anyone?

Holden said:

Can someone please explain what is 'International' about Piedmont Triad International Airport?"

Jonathan says:

What's so "International" about PTIA? It doesn't matter if the flights coming into or out of PTIA are connections to bigger hubs, where the airlines really do fly direct to connections overseas or in other countries! As long as those flights coming into and leaving Greensboro do connect with more direct flights in and out of the country, then PTIA is truly an "international" airport! You are still taking a connecting flight to an international destination! Which, by the way, does give PTIA a "direct" link to that destination! Look at the number of companies -- whose headquarters are based in other countries -- that have set up branch operations in the Triad region, and you will see that many of their employees DO FLY OUT OF PTIA to these "international" destinations! Let's look at the "international" designation from a more-positive standpoint, yes? Non-stop hubs or connecting flights, either way, they are getting the "international" business! And thanks to the soon-to-open FedEx regional facility at PTIA, things may swing upward on the "international" side!

So if I ship a box that gets picked up by truck, and it is driven to PTIA where it gets on a plane and it's flown to another city where it ends up on a boat that eventually gets it overseas, then we can correctly call it "Piedmont Triad International Truck Stop"?

My sarcasim was apparently too subtle. 30 years ago when I first flew into PTI I was amazed at how lush and green everything was all over. My family picked me up and as soon as we left the terminal we were in the country - I mean two lane roads, trees, kudzu, quiet, cool green. It was beautiful. The drive up 68 was an incredible 15 minute trip. It was amazing to be so close to an airport and city, yet able to live in the solitude of the rural country. I remember the smell of kudzu, wisteria and honeysuckle; the 'feel' of green all around; trees turning their leaves up before a storm; shadows after a thunderstorm and the cool breezes; walking outside at night, alone, looking at stars, and it was so clear.

I told people I met out in the county that they should be careful because someday Greensboro would annex their area. They said "They'd never come out THIS FAR". Hmmmm.

I loved this area so much I moved here. I was willing to 'live out in the country' and go without water if the power was out, have a car constantly covered in dust, drive really slow behind tractors with tobacco sleds, make 30 minute trips 'into town' to the grocery store - give up little things in order to have all the good that went with living out in the sticks.

NOW HERE'S MY POINT - there are people in our local, state and federal government, and businesses, who think they are right in forcing their vision of a lifestyle on others. I moved here because I liked the lifestyle that was calm, smooth, casual and friendly. I changed to fit into the lifestyle here. In the last 10 years there has been a HUGE push by people who seem to be mostly tied to real estate attorneys or developers, to 'grow' the Triad. They have decided that I must change my lifestyle to fit THEIR vision, and if I don't like it, that's just too bad. They are forcing people who have lived in their quiet, safe, country homes for a lifetime to move; or the unlucky people must stay, and then be surrounded with widened roads, blocks of business buildings, torn up landscapes, tree-less hot asphalt, impossible traffic, roadside trash, night noise and light.

I DO NOT understand why the people who are moving INTO this area are allowed to change the lives of so many. I DO NOT understand why they think that it's right. I DO NOT understand why people representing us think we are stupid and they know better than we do about the kind of life we want for ourselves. I DO NOT understand why the developers, attorneys, planners, business persons involved in these projects DO NOT live with their yard backed up to the Loop With No Name, next door to the new Shoppes at Bryan/68/40/Sandy Ridge/et.al., or at the end of runway 23. I DO NOT understand why it's better to sit in traffic at 68 and Bryan Blvd. than to drive quietly home on Old 68 past the log cabin and down the hollow toward the Old Mill. I DO NOT understand why ANYONE in their RIGHT MIND would want to make this area like Atlanta. I DO NOT understand why 'we the people' are not allowed to vote directly on all of this growth; or why the people in government so often are linked to real estate development; or why taxpayers are required to help fund private growth with 'incentives'.

Back in the day I could feel calm coming over me as I drove up North Church St. on my way home from work - smell the honeysuckle, look at the fall colored trees in the lakes, smell the crisp air. Now it's just irritation - people pushing to get ahead where the road narrows to one lane, pulling out in front of you just to make the next left turn.

I'm frustrated with this whole place. I moved here to get away from the traffic, noise, pollution, fighting, gangs, killing, anger, guns, watching my surroundings so I wasn't attacked, sitting in traffic on hot nights just waiting. With big growth come big problems. The people here don't have a clue. It's just beginning - home break-ins become more frequent and violent, daytime street attacks, corruption of government and civil service employees, people become paranoid and suspicious, gangs strengthen, schools weaken, everything in the middle around the airport business gets trashed, while the healthy and good stuff gets 'sucked' further from the center of town.

Guilford County is being strangled. Watching the change is difficult. I feel so sad for the people who have lost their homes and the lives that they had hoped to live and pass onto their children. I worry about where they will move, how they will afford to move, how they will adjust.

I really have felt so grateful that I was allowed to live here. I loved the beauty of this area and it hurts. I often find myself amongst the mass of cars at Wendover and 40 anytime of the day thinking 'I could be sitting in traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge right now'.

- "they paved paradise and put in a parking lot."

Absolutely PTI needs to expand!

Charlotte has already taken much of the area's industry away with it's Major International Hub. Wachovia, Westinghouse, Bank of America, and most of USAirways are just a few companies that have either been lured from the triad to CLT due to it's international Hub, or companies that have chosen CLT because of it!

The new Federal Express Hub, and the new Honda Jet Facility, along with an expanded PTIA would give the local economy a greatly needed boost, and open up the door for tremendous growth potential, which is exactly what we need in this area, after the thousands of jobs lost to the Textile industry, and other industries outsourcing to other countries.