I somewhat apologize for what is going to be a fairly long post....Hopefully the information is useful to you and/or contractors that may bid on snow removal.
In answer to your question about whether something can push 350 feet, the answer is yes. Our longest push is about 750 feet, and our machines easily push the snow to the end. The problem is spilling. Using a protech standard loader pusher SP-16L as an example (since they give a "capacity"), a 16 foot pusher will accomodate 21 yd^3 of snow. After doing some math, this is 425 ft-in. So, if you have a 1" snowfall, you should be able to push 425 feet before significant spilling, while you should be able to push 212.5 ft for a 2" snowfall. Actual results may vary.
If you start having significant spilling, you then have to come back and clean up the spilled windrows. If they are large enough, you start spilling and create two more trying to get rid of one. You can chase your tail for quite a while, but it will eventually get done.
Airports are fundamentally a different world than conventional snow plowing.
Because it is hard to clear next to buildings or aircraft, what we typically do at KPJC is to run a snowblower (or, for light snows, a snowgrader from jmenterprises) to clear 2 to 3 feet from the building or aircraft, then run a plow to widen the cleared path to 8 feet or so, and then start pushing. This way spillage stays far enough away from the building so that you can clean it up, rather than winding up with a berm under the tails and props of aircraft or pushed up against the hangar doors. At KPJC, Tenants are responsible for clearing within 3 feet of their building, and once the airport clears the ramp/taxilane they don't come back. This is where communication with the tenants comes in handy, so they can shovel/snowblow that initial 3 feet before the airport comes through.
Runways and taxiways are done with plow trucks and a broom in-trail to immediately broom the area before it can ice.
The most basic example of this can be found in taxiways. For a group I airport (accomodating aircraft with wingspans up to 50 feet), the taxiway width that should be free of obstacles is 80 feet wide. The pavement is typically only 25 feet wide. For group II aircraft (up to 80 foot spans) the area free of obstacles is supposed to be 116 feet, and the paved area is typically 35 feet. Runways have similar issues.
For Group I and II aircraft, the guidance from the FAA is to have a berm no higher than 6" at the runway edge lights, increasing to 2 feet 16 feet beyond the lights and 5 feet 32 feet beyond the lights. Even if you ignore that guidance, the lights must be uncovered if the airport is to allow landings at night or in IFR conditions, which creates a problem if you simply plow to the edge and leave a berm, as you then have to shovel around the lights by hand.
Similarly, if you don't push the snow way beyond the paved area of the ramp, then you start losing ramp area for maneuvering.
Hence the use of big blowers on airports. Windrow the snow to the last 8' or so of pavement and then blow it into the weeds. You can get an idea of prices for used blowers at
www.publiquip.com. This is mostly canadian equipment, but as a result they have a bigger selection of large blowers than most US sites. One issue may be whether you are required to have Tier IV compliant equipment, as the older blowers will not meet this requirement.
At the risk of turning this into read-a-book_site, guidance from the FAA can be found in Advisory Circular AC 150/5200-30C, "Airport Winter Safety and Operations." While non-mandatory except for part 129 airports, it is guidance that can be used either for yourself or for establishing and evaluating what is a "good job" for a contractor.
Guidance on equipment selection can be found in AC 150/5220-20A, "Airport Snow and Ice Control Equipment."
Another difference between airports and other sites is the lack of traffic before plowing and obstacles. This is an advantage because you don't need to worry about scraping hard-pack, and can use rubber edge pushers on ramp areas with reasonable results, particularly if you broom afterwards. This is important due to the no-salt requirements. At KPJC salt is not even used on the entrance roads, as tenants will occasionally drive on the ramps to get to T-hangars and the airport does not want salt tracked in. Urea used to be acceptable as a de-icer, and the FAA is not opposed, but usually the local EPA equivalent has banned it as a de-icer for environmental reasons.
With respect to leasing equipment, I know of some airports in ag communities that will purchase a large PTO snowblower (such as a snowblast/teamco 10800 or larger) and then contract with a local farmer for the use of a large (300 PTO hp) ag tractor to run the blower when they need it. The farmers aren't usually opposed as their tractor isn't doing anything in the winter anyway.
Similarly, you might be able to find paving contractors with brooms that are sitting idle all winter.
Assuming you a public airport, you might be able to get first dibs on equipment that BWI or some regional airports are getting rid of.
You may be able to get equipment using AIP funds, but that requires that you have put it in your master plan, 12 year plan, 5 year plan, etc., and have done the appropriate politicking. You also only get AIP $$ for equipment once every 10 years or so, so a lot of thought has to go into it. As with everything, there are strings. If you get any money for equipment, the FAA prohibits it from being used off the airport, so forget leasing it out.
