The airport plans to hire a contractor to replace early next year pavement damaged when the 747 cargo plane, called the Dreamlifter, landed on it instead of at McConnell Air Force Base, nine months to the south of it.

The Wichita Eagle reported (http://bit.ly/1rqGP0W ) that Dreamlifters are much heavier than Jabara’s runway was designed to handle.

“There’s already visual indications that there’s fractures,” said Brad Christopher, Wichita Airport Authority assistant director of airports. “But we wanted to be more thorough and a little more scientific.”

The pavement has now gone through a freezing and thawing cycle.

“The fractures are not a safety issue at this point,” he said. “We will be watching those and making sure they don’t get worse.”

It’s not yet known how much the cost of repairs will be, Christopher said.

New York-based Atlas Air contracts with Boeing to fly and operate the planes, and airport officials plan to ask Atlas to pick up the cost. The company has been cooperative and helpful so far.

“I don’t anticipate we’re going to have any dispute,” he said.

Boeing uses the specially modified 747 with the funny hump to pick up and deliver parts for its 787 Dreamliner.

The airport is also repairing and adding additional hangars for aircraft storage and building a new airport entrance and road at a cost of $2.82 million.