For Scott Kohut, deputy director of the Boca Raton Airport since 2014, it used to be exasperating to tell people about his job. “When I first started, when I was out in the community, I’d introduce myself and say where I worked, and people would be like, ‘oh, you mean the Palm Beach Airport?’ No, no no … ‘Oh, you mean, Fort Lauderdale?’ No, no, no, Boca Airport! You know when you’re sitting in Rocco’s Tacos, and those planes are really low? That’s where they’re coming!”
While Boca Raton’s is not a commuter airport like Palm Beach International, its presence in the city’s economy has become so pronounced that it’s a well-known entity even among locals who have never availed themselves of its services. Part of that visibility is thanks to amiable spokespeople like Kohut. “One of the big pushes since I’ve been here has been community engagement—telling the story about the airport,” he says.
That story can begin in 1936 with the opening of what was then called the Boca Raton Army Airfield. Or it can begin on the home front of the Second World War, when the airport became the training base for the U.S. Army’s pioneering use of radar technology. Even Boca’s largest university owes its existence to the airfield; FAU’s inception dates to the 1950s, after the state of Florida released 1,000 acres of airport land for educational use.
Just as important are the stories of the airport today. It’s become a revenue-generating behemoth for the city, averaging 83,000 operations each year for an annual economic impact of nearly $700 million, according to the most recent numbers from the Florida Department of Transportation. It’s used for corporate travel, private aviation, air taxi operations and flight training. The 2018 opening of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility at the airport opened it up to the rest of the world, and it has seen a significant spike in operations from the Caribbean.
The airport enters 2024 on the immediate heels of its 75th anniversary—Dec. 28, 2023, to be exact—which it celebrated with a series of events and upgrades spearheaded by Kohut, Airport Director Clara Bennett and their staff of six.
“We have a new ambassador program, and also a mural wall that’s a part of that,” Kohut says. “And one of the big projects we’re looking forward to getting underway is in the design phase now; it’s an airport observation area, which will be a destination, with a covered platform with seating and some information about the airport, where people can come out and watch airplanes take off and land from a nice comfortable spot.”
The airport continues to be entrenched in the Boca Raton community, from organizing a team in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk in October to administering an airport scholarship for the George Snow Scholarship Fund to hosting back-to-school supply drives.
Additionally, Kohut says, “we’re going to have a series of speakers throughout the community, updating everyone on the airport. We are sponsoring the Fabulous Fourth [of July], partnering with the City of Boca Raton. We’re also partnering with FAU’s athletic department. We’re looking to really get out there and spread the good word of the airport.”
With so much variety in his workday, it’s no wonder Kohut enjoys his job—especially now that he doesn’t have to explain it to everybody. “I really love how dynamic the operation is here,” he says. “It’s not coming in and sitting in an office and doing the same thing every day. There’s always something new going on. … There’s a lot of pride in the airport and the way it’s grown up with the community. So it’s great to work in an environment that has that sort of positive energy.”
This article is from the January 2024 issue of Boca magazine. For more like this, click here to subscribe to the magazine.
