The Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority voted on Wednesday to reclaim property it has leased to Metro Nashville for two decades, clearing the way for a major extension of runway 2L that airport leaders say could eventually put Tokyo and Seoul within nonstop reach of BNA. The decision starts a two-year countdown for Metro to vacate offices, warehouses and maintenance facilities sitting on airport-owned land at Murfreesboro Pike and Knight Valley Drive.
The vote, reported by WKRN News 2, formally triggers the notice period MNAA has been signaling for months. Metro's lease on the property dates back to 2005 and had been extended through at least February 2031, according to Roman Keselman, as cited in WKRN's reporting. MNAA may terminate that lease early if it needs the property for airport expansion, and doing so is expected to cost the airport roughly $1.833 million in foregone rent through February 2031, per the airport's own estimate.
MNAA had already flagged this outcome as likely. In a board packet from last fall, the authority told Metro officials that it would issue a two-year notice to vacate as soon as it received an environmental decision from the Federal Aviation Administration, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority. MNAA President and CEO Doug Kreulen told the board that “eventually the runway is going to get approved and funded,” meaning Metro's Southeast facility north of Murfreesboro Road would ultimately have to move regardless.
A Runway Built With Asia in Mind
Runway 2L currently stretches about 8,000 feet, and airport officials plan to lengthen it by nearly 4,000 feet, according to WKRN's reporting. Kreulen has said the expansion could create new opportunities for international travel, calling a Nashville-to-Asia connection a long-term ambition for the city and state, per WKRN.
MNAA has worked with the FAA on the project for about six years, and the authority has budgeted $55 million for runway design, Kreulen told WKRN. Any construction still requires federal approval, and the FAA's environmental review is part of that process; once clearance comes, the work itself is expected to take about six years.
Clearing a Path Over Murfreesboro Pike
The expansion plans call for relocating Murfreesboro Pike and building a tunnel for the runway to pass over the roadway, according to WKRN's reporting. Beyond the roadway work, the Tennessean has reported that clearance for the project includes demolishing 19 homes and relocating a former Central State Hospital graveyard containing at least 137 burials.
MNAA has already approved land acquisition agreements for multiple acres needed for the extension, with the parcels carrying multi-million-dollar price tags, according to Fox17. The authority anticipates beginning the runway 2L extension process in the fourth quarter of 2027, WKRN reported, though the project remains subject to what Fox17 described as the FAA's multistep approval process.
Metro's Side of the Ledger
For Metro, the two-year notice is meant to give the city time to find a new location for the employees, equipment and operations currently housed at the Murfreesboro Pike site, per WKRN's reporting. MNAA must also comply with federal relocation requirements tied to displacing a government tenant, though the associated relocation cost has not yet been determined, WKRN reported.
Growth That Outpaced the Runways
The push for more runway capacity comes as passenger and flight activity at BNA continue to climb. Kreulen has said the airport now averages more than 91,000 passengers a day, with peak days reaching between 110,000 and 115,000 passengers. BNA currently handles about 850 aircraft movements daily, a number Kreulen said could eventually climb to 1,450 a day as demand increases, according to WKRN.
Those projections track with numbers the airport authority has published elsewhere. BNA welcomed a record 26.7 million passengers in fiscal year 2026, a 7.7% jump over the prior year, and logged its single busiest day on October 5, 2025, with 116,047 total passengers, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority. The airport also reached 115 nonstop destinations in June 2026, the most in its history, as part of a $3 billion construction and renovation effort the authority calls New Horizon, designed to eventually support 40 million annual passengers.
BNA's passenger growth has accompanied its expansion efforts, while runway upgrades remain part of the airport's plans. For now, the land vote triggers a two-year notice period tied to the runway extension — one Nashville officials hope eventually lands a nonstop flight across the Pacific — even as the FAA review, construction timeline and Metro's next move remain unresolved.
