While the Des Moines airport’s growth is getting the spotlight, the Ankeny Regional Airport is quietly taking off, too.
The big picture: The smaller airport mostly serves private clients, including Fortune 500 companies, caucus candidates and entertainers.
Driving the news: This spring, the airport is renovating and extending its milelong main runway, adding 500 feet to the north to accommodate larger jets that previously couldn’t land at the facility.
After securing Federal Aviation Administration funding, the runway will be reconstructed in the spring, costing costing $12+ million. Planes will need to go elsewhere or use the airport’s shorter runway for a month.
“This 500 feet is going to increase the economic viability of our airport,” airport manager Paul Moritz tells Axios.
State of play: As Ankeny and the Des Moines metro grow, demand for more hangar space and improved infrastructure at the regional airport is increasing, he says.
Fast-growing Casey’s is headquartered nearby and recently built a large new hangar. Iowa State Patrol, which conducts aerial traffic enforcement, also built a hangar.
The 84 leasable smaller hangars at the airport are full and there’s an 80-person waitlist, Moritz says.
What’s next: The airport is also eyeing building a second terminal on its 35 acres off the South Corporate Woods Drive interchange, near the Iowa Department of Transportation station
The current terminal is nearly maxed out, and the South Corporate Terminal project would allow additional hangars and more traffic. Estimated costs for some of its initial phases are around $9 million.
Between the lines: Plans are still far off and there’s no guarantee another terminal will be built, especially with rising costs in construction and obtaining funding, Moritz says.
The airport is funded by federal and local tax dollars, and though the area’s tax base has grown, costs such as metal for hangars have outpaced increased funding.
Lease payments made by people who use the hangar and the land also help fund the airport.
What they’re saying: “From an economic standpoint, it’s very good to have a busy airport that has a lot of business flights coming in and out,” Moritz says. “These companies want to be here.”