Thomas Babychan
Following the reports of building a private airport in Austin, Texas, Chief Executive Officer of Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, took to Twitter on Friday to share his side of the story regarding the airport issue.
In reply to a tweet by a handle named MySA @mySA, Elon Musk said that reports regarding building a private airport were untrue.
According to Elon Musk, the Tesla (probably headquarters) is just 5 minutes away from Austin International Airport and that building another one privately would be silly. He ended the reply tweet by stating that the existing airport in Austin needed an additional runway soon, as the city was growing rapidly.
Not true. Tesla is 5 mins from Austin International airport. Would be silly to build another private airport, however the existing commercial airport needs another runway, as Austin is growing fast!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 4, 2022
The report of Elon Musks’ plan to build a private airport in Bastrop, Austin was published by an Austin local news media tabloid named Austonia. The report quoted several “succeed” who confirmed Elon Musks’ decision to build a private airport in the Bastrop region of Austin City in the state of Texas.
The news report spread like a wildfire, as the headquarters of almost all the companies, owned or founded by Elon Musk, were shifted to Austin in the last few years.
The city of Austin is home to mainly two airports, Austin Executive Airport and Austin–Bergstrom International Airport.
Austin Executive Airport which was opened in 2011 has two asphalt runways in an overall area of 585 acres of land.
Austin–Bergstrom International Airport, earlier a United Stated Air force Base, was opened to public in May 1999.
Currently, the airport is operating with two runways and three helipads which has successfully conducted 203,389 flight operations in 2021.
In a new report about denial by Tesla CEO, Austonia stated that the sources related to the media told them Elon Musk was frustrated with the slow expansion plans of Austin–Bergstrom International Airport.
Sources of the news portal even assumed that Elon Musk would have offered money to the airport authorities to conduct expansion and development plans of the airstrip at a faster pace.
Austin–Bergstrom International Airport had earlier published a plan named “2040 Master Plan” which details the goals of the airport to achieve development and expansion of the runway.
Austonia also reported that after publishing reports on rumours regarding Elon Musk building a new private airport, various people have reached out to the media house suggesting that Elon Musk would be planning to take over or join with an existing airport in the region.
When Austonia reached out to Austin–Bergstrom International Airport regarding any offers received from Elon Musk, Chief Officer of Business & Finance of the airport, Mookie Patel responded that till now they haven’t received any such offer.