MOULTRIE, Ga. — The Moultrie-Colquitt County Airport Authority can breathe a sigh of relief. A vote Tuesday night by the Moultrie City Council will let the authority finish extending the airport’s runway.

The city government is the conduit for a grant that’s funding the expansion.

The extension is part of the Airport Authority’s five-year plan after former Gov. Nathan Deal made funds available to 11 airports in the state. After being selected the authority developed this plan to update the airport, including building corporate aircraft hangars, updating existing hangars and renovating the terminal building.

Going into the process the goal was to extend the airway to 6,000 feet and extend the width to 100 feet. The agreement approved Tuesday will give the runway its last 371 feet of that goal.

Airport Authority Chairman Mike Boyd spoke on how excited he was to get the first phase of this extensive project basically done.

“The entire Airport Authority is just happy that this has come about,” said Boyd. “It helps us so much by increasing the amount of business we have at the airport. We have customers such as Sanderson Farms who use their jets for transport and they need this addition to continue using the airport. There were times folks couldn’t use this airport  because of the runway length; now with the first addition and the latest addition to the runway it should be no problem.”

Boyd said as of now, big jets can land only in dry weather. Extending the runway will give more clearance for safety. There are benefits for hunting season as well when hunters  from different areas of the country can just fly in, Boyd said. Members of the authority  believe this is an avenue to extend business and tourism here.

Work on the runway has been at a standstill for the past two weeks due to weather conditions, but Boyd said if there are no more delays the runway could be finished early as July.