Kenny Hinkes had purchased the red Cessna aircraft in 2019 to teach his son Jack how to fly and figured it would be easy to find a place to store it. A real estate developer and a pilot with nearly 50 years鈥� experience at the time, Hinkes was surprised to learn that there was a nationwide hangar shortage for general aviation aircraft.
鈥淲hy don鈥檛 we go build some hangars?鈥� Hinkes recalled his son telling him.
Six years later, Hinkes said they鈥檝e cracked the code on building hangars at federal airports through their company High Flying Hangars. They鈥檝e built privately owned hangars in places such as Amarillo, Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they are located.
Now they鈥檙e bringing 44 hangars for private owners to the Denton Enterprise Airport as part of a 40-year lease that the Denton City Council approved last month, according airport director Ryan Adams.
Hinkes called them luxury hangars, fully insulated with floor drains to wash the aircraft and the hangar as needed and adequate space for other needs such as storing tools. All hangars will include city utility connections, as well as additional amenities, depending on clients鈥� needs.
The groundbreaking ceremony will take place before the end of the year, and Hinkes said the hangars will be available to owners in the last quarter of 2026. He estimated that between 70 and 80 aircraft will be located there at full buildout.
Mayor Gerard Hudsepth celebrated the news in a June 25 news release from High Flying Hangars and said it will be a 鈥渕uch-needed resource鈥� for the city鈥檚 aviation community and supports the growth of Denton鈥檚 economy.
鈥淲e are thrilled to have them invest in Denton Enterprise Airport,鈥� Hudspeth said in the release.
The estimated $21 million project will add more than 110,000 square feet of hangar space to the airport, according to the company.
Air traffic has been increasing at Denton鈥檚 municipal airport, ranking it as the fifth busiest airport in the state, according to staff.
Last year, nearly 222,000 departures and arrivals took place 鈥� an increase of 9,000 takeoffs and landings compared to 2023, according to a January staff report to the City Council.
Adams projected that air traffic will increase to more than 300,000 departures and arrivals in 2044.
In February, the council voted to increase rate fees at the airport in response to this increased traffic and an estimated five-year budget shortfall due in part to declining gas well revenues.
Those increases took effect in April, Adams told the Denton Record-Chronicle on Tuesday.
Adams confirmed there is a hangar shortage, pointing out that the city currently owns 27 hangars at the airport and has a waiting list of 100 people.
鈥淲hat excited us about this development is not only the ability to add hangar capacity at the airport, but the size can fit everything from smaller piston aircraft to smaller turbine crafts,鈥� Adams said. 鈥淚t gives a lot of options of the type of aircraft that can be based at the airport, a more diverse type of aircraft, and opens up options for the different types of aviation business that can have spillover to the local economy.鈥�
Later this fall, Adams said, the council will discuss the airport鈥檚 master plan and seek feedback via a public hearing about proposed facility improvements and how the city plans to change the runways and develop the property over the next 20 years.
In last week鈥檚 news release, Hinkes called the hangar project an investment that 鈥渕akes sense on all sides鈥� and said it is the company鈥檚 first hangar development in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
鈥淧eople are hungry for shelter,鈥� Hinkes told Flying Magazine in 2023. 鈥淚 tell people this all the time, and it鈥檚 true for our development. There are people on the sidelines wanting to either upgrade from their older airplane or get into aircraft ownership. But they are not going to buy anything unless they have a great place to keep it. They are not going to leave a new plane outside.鈥�