It was an especially busy winter at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport, as workers rushed to complete the two preparatory phases of a $7 million runway renovation project. The project involves removing approximately 300 feet of runway along the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road, and adding new runway on the other side of the airport, closer to Barnes Road.

The project will allow the airport to meet federal safety standards by creating a 1,000-foot safety area at the end of the runway in the event of an emergency or bumpy landing. When the runway was last modified in the 1970s, a 699-foot safety area was left between the western edge of the runway and the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road, which is not considered large enough.

The project has been somewhat complicated, said airport manager Sean Flynn, during a tour of the facility on Friday.

Mr. Flynn said shifting even a small portion of the runway requires all the taxiways to be reconfigured, and the system of lights that direct a pilot toward the runway must also be moved. Ditto for the instrument landing system, the ground-based instrument system used to guide approaching planes to the runway with a combination of radio signals and high-intensity lighting arrays.

And since the airport serves general aviation aircraft in addition to commercial planes, the placement of these lighting and instrument landing systems is crucial, Mr. Flynn said. And during poor weather, the airport uses instrument flight rules, procedures for flying aircraft using only the aircraft instrument panel for navigation.

So moving a portion of runway involves more than simply moving pavement.

“When a pilot comes out of the clouds, he expects to see the same thing every time. The radio signal for the instrument landing system is specific to the current location of the runway. So you have to be very careful that the runway and the equipment stays exactly where it is, until you are ready to switch,” Mr. Flynn said.

He said the airport won’t be ready to make the switch until the third phase of the project begins this fall. The first phase of the project, completed in December, was to create a new series of taxiways and a footprint for the portion of runway to be moved. The second phase, completed last week, was to reconstruct the taxiways closest to the Edgartown-West Tisbury Road.

The third phase is to finish the new portion of runway on the Barnes Road side and move all the associated lighting and electronic equipment.

The airport is also rebuilding the system of roads leading into the airport, and is in the early planning stages of a project to rebuild the airport’s apron, where planes are stored.

This project, separate from the airport renovations, will cost upwards of $13 million.

Mr. Flynn explained why it all costs so much.

“Building new runways is nothing like building new roads or highways. Your typical road has maybe three inches of pavement, and they build maybe six inches under the surface, maybe a foot on a highway. But we are going two feet below the surface . . . this meets a much higher standard,” he said. “This plane here,” he said, pointing to a large, twin-engine private jet, “weighs as much as 90,000 pounds, which is about what a typical tractor trailer weighs. But a tractor trailer is on 18 wheels, spread out so the weight is distributed evenly. But this plane has 90,000 pounds on six wheels, which are tiny compared to what you would find on a big rig.

“And a runway must support 90,000 pounds that drops out of the sky.”

As he conducted the tour in the airport sport utility vehicle, a sort of mobile command center with direct radio lines to the tower and airport employees, Mr. Flynn discussed some of the recent trends at the airport, which was built by the U.S. Navy in 1943 for flight training and munitions operations during World War II.

He said the current renovations are taking place against the backdrop of a sharp decrease in air traffic. The airport serves more than 250,000 passengers and 55,000 aircraft operations each year, he said, which is down about 30 per cent from the peak years of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

And the type of aircraft have also changed. Small, single-engine planes now make up only about half the total arrivals and departures. One reason is an increase in fractional ownership programs.

“It’s sort of a time share for airplanes,” Mr. Flynn said. “It allows people who can’t afford to have their own plane a chance to buy a piece. It’s become popular all across the county, especially here on Martha’s Vineyard,” he said.

The influx of larger jets has translated to an increase in jet fuel sales over the past decade, which has offset the loss of revenue caused by a decline in air traffic. That trend peaked in 2008, when the airport sold about one million gallons of fuel.

Last year the number dropped to 600,000 gallons, Mr. Flynn said, but the airport still managed to break even because of an increase in prices and fuel margins. The airport in recent years has also made more money from property rentals, while taking in less in landing and ramp fees.

The airport also has increased services, providing more ground services, such as power units so planes don’t have to keep their engines running, more hangar space and towing capabilities.

“We have to provide more services; that’s just good business,” Mr. Flynn said. “It’s what the industry expects of us, and it’s what people are finding at other airports, even airports smaller than ours.”

He said airport officials thought carefully about the level of growth at the airport when planning the runway renovations. For the most part the changes have been without controversy, another changed trend. When the airport expanded in 1969 to accommodate jet traffic, for example, the project drew darts from many Islanders who feared airport expansion would lead to more overcrowding in the summer.

Mr. Flynn said finding the right balance continues to be a challenge.

“We want to remain self-sufficient; we don’t want to be a tax burden on the taxpayers. But at the same time we don’t want to offer fuel so cheap people are coming to the Island just to buy it,” he said.

Driving alongside two larger aircraft, one owned by a well-known Edgartown businessman, Mr. Flynn said he doesn’t expect the airport to grow much in the coming years, nor does he want it to.

“We aren’t Logan [International Airport in Boston], we never will be. We think carefully about all the changes we make . . . in the case of the current project, it was to enhance safety, not accommodate more air traffic. That being said, I don’t think just putting more asphalt and expanding the terminal will bring more people here, it’s not that simple,” he said. “We have to change to meet the needs of our customers, but we try not to change too much.”