McKinney National Airport Promotes Teresa Lyons Ahead of Commercial Service Launch

Teresa Lyons earned her Accredited Airport Executive designation in a Houston credentialing interview last August, finishing a multi-year process that included formal study and hands-on work through two prior roles at McKinney National Airport. Seven months later, the city handed her the No. 2 job.

McKinney announced March 30 that Lyons has been promoted to Airport Maintenance and Operations Manager at TKI, placing her in charge of the operations infrastructure that will determine whether Avelo Airlines, the airport's first committed commercial carrier, can begin scheduled service before the year ends. Avelo has not yet published its launch routes or dates; those details are expected before the new terminal opens in late 2026.

The passenger terminal broke ground in summer 2025. At 45,000 to 46,000 square feet with multiple gates and room to expand, the $72-79 million structure is now in its construction completion phase, and that means the airport runs on two parallel tracks simultaneously: finishing a building while standing up the regulatory frameworks commercial service requires. Lyons' responsibilities explicitly include FAA Part 139 certification readiness, the process that converts TKI from a general aviation field to a federally certified commercial airport, along with TSA Part 1542 security and credentialing program development, construction and airfield safety oversight, and aircraft incident and accident response.

Each of those workstreams has a direct effect on what happens at the airfield. Part 139 certification demands documented inspection cycles for runways and taxiways, trained emergency response personnel, and coordination with federal and state aviation agencies. Construction and airfield safety oversight means managing how work zones interact with active flight operations, a consideration that shapes when maintenance windows open and how flight activity is routed around them. Those decisions ripple outward to neighborhoods near the airport, where changes in ground traffic patterns, construction schedules, and ultimately in the volume and frequency of commercial flights will register in ways general aviation rarely produced.

Lyons joined TKI in 2023 as an operational analyst and moved to airport operations supervisor in 2024. Her credentials, AAE, ACE, and ASC, span airport executive leadership and operations. Airport Director Kenneth Carley, who has led TKI through more than $140 million in capital improvements including runway extensions, taxiway upgrades, and a U.S. Customs facility, now has a dedicated operations manager focused on the certification and readiness sprint ahead.

The stakes are regional. McKinney has grown past 225,000 residents, and Collin County's population sits near 1.2 million. A commercial TKI would offer a closer alternative to DFW International and Dallas Love Field for a substantial share of North Texas travelers who have watched the airport transform over the past several years.

Construction progress, staffing announcements, and the commercial service timeline are updated at the FlyTKI website.