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Airport on track to make 10,000 passengers
Published 12/18/2009 in Local News
By SHAJIA AHMAD
The Garden City Regional Airport will "just barely" reach the threshold of passengers it needs by the end of this year in order to collect its annual $1 million in federal funding, an airport official said.
Aviation Director Rachelle Powell told city commissioners during their Tuesday public meeting that there is no longer any reason to hold their breaths concerning enplanements, or the number of people flying into and out of the airport per year.
Powell said the airport already has tallied 9,692 enplanements as of Thursday and fully expects to reach the 10,000 required for the Federal Aviation Administration's funding once it tallies remaining commercial flights through Great Lakes Aviation, the airport's Essential Air Service provider, and other private charter and EagleMed's emergency medical flights.
Charter and emergency medical flights account for about 300 to 500 flights into or out of the airport per year, Powell said.
"We knew with the economy things would be rough this year, and we're definitely worried about next year," Powell said Thursday.
Not reaching the 10,000-enplanement target means the local airport receives about $150,000 in federal funding, significantly destabilizing ongoing improvement projects at the airport, the aviation director added.
During their Tuesday public meeting, city commissioners also approved a new lease agreement between the city and FBO Air Garden City, a fixed-base operator at the airport that is primarily responsible for refueling airplanes at the fuel farm south of the terminal.
The lease replaces a 2005 lease between the company and the city, when FBO Air Garden City came on board with the city's former FBO, Flower Aviation, based in Pueblo, Colo., to undertake the operations.
The new lease comes in the wake of FBO Air Garden City's asset purchase of the Garden City branch of Flower Aviation, which occurred this month, according to Linda Steventon, director of FBO services with Saker Aviation, the FBO Air Garden City's parent company, based in Wilkes-Barre, Penn.
Jon Crotts, FBO Air Garden City's manager, was not available for comment today.
Powell said she does not expect the transfer to affect cross-country corporate traffic through the local airport or the airport's other operations.
A major benefit of the new lease is that the new FBO will provide a base aircraft for rental, the aviation director said, and anyone with a pilot's license can rent the aircraft for personal use or flight instruction.
FBOs typically provide services to airport users like plane rental, flight lessons, aircraft maintenance, aircraft towing, refueling, catering and other items, though not all offer the same services.
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