Cedar City Regional Airport is looking to add an air traffic control tower to accommodate growth.
The 97-year-old airport is home to commercial flights, the SUU Flight School and an air tanker base. The airport manager says an air traffic control tower could help them be more controlled, safe, and welcoming to growth.
“We’ve grown so fast, our airport’s so busy, but there’s a lot of safety concerns with just all of our flights every single day, to make sure that everybody’s maintaining separation, and that we don’t have any incidents out there,” said Airport Manager Tyler Galetka.
He says each year they have about 115,000 takeoffs and landings for helicopters and airplanes. Just one day can have up to 650.
Industry estimates usually have tower design and construction taking about seven years and costing between $20 million and $22 million. Galetka says they’re looking for state, federal and local funding.
Galetka says having local operators rather than relying on Salt Lake Center air traffic control could also help attract more airlines.
Right now, the airport only flies commercially to Salt Lake via Delta SkyWest. They have about two of those flights a day that sit around 40% capacity.
However, challenges come with convincing carriers wanting flights passengers to meet 80% capacity, and cheap airlines nearby in Vegas are pulling customers away.
“We’re always in the works of trying to recruit other airlines. It gets a little tricky to get them to bite on it,” Galetka said. “They hold all the cards when it comes to the routes and the cities they go to, but we’ve been in talks over the years, and we’re just hoping to see if they’ll bite off on it and start serving Cedar City, going to other locations.”
Those locations the airport is hoping for include Southern California, Colorado, Texas and Arizona.
To help try and be ready for future interest, they’ve also made major upgrades to the terminal this past year, going from one single-use to full restrooms, increasing seating capacity by 100, adding vending, and allowing space for two simultaneous commercial flights. They’re also planning to add more refreshment vendors and keep a warm lodge feel that makes people ready to visit the parks.
“We’re geared up. We’re ready for it,” Galetka said.
He added expansion will benefit the local economy.
“Tenants that are moving into the Cedar City Airport to base locations here, you’re automatically creating jobs, and so it helps bring up high-paying jobs at times too to the community, bring in tax revenue to the community as well. Every dollar spent here at the airport will help grow the airport, and you see the tax benefit outside of the airport when they, you know, purchase houses, when they eat at restaurants, when they stay at hotels, purchase fuel. We see those taxes go back into the local economy, and that goes both ways,” Galetka said.