Feb. 12—Across the country, COVID-19 affected a multitude of industries, but perhaps no industry was more impacted than commercial aviation.
Southeast Iowa Regional Airport was no stranger to these losses. Its enplanements, the number of times passengers board the plane, fell by two-thirds, meaning the airport had less than 2,700 enplanements and served 5,000 passengers total, including those who exited planes at the airport, served. Nonetheless, empty planes still flew out of the airport twice a day; they had to.
"Money-wise, Essential Air Service is still paying the bills," explained Charlie Walsh, chairman of the airport board.
The flights out of the airport are subsidized by the federal government as part of the Essential Air Service, a program administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation to subsidize two round-trip fights per day from small airports to medium or large hubs. This meant that even when there were no passengers, the airport still needed to make those two flights happen or the carrier handling the flights would lose money.
It's a problem nationwide, Walsh explained. Normally, business people coming in and out of Burlington who normally would use Air Choice One now are flying via charter planes, citing safety. Walsh said airlines are trying to cut down on the number of people on planes, but it is hard to cut seats from the eight-seat planes that fly into and out of the airport.
Walsh said he is hopeful business will be picking back up in the near future.
Airport manager Sarah Sandburg said the airport does receive money to do work on the airport, receiving about $650,000 for hitting 8,000 enplanements. Dropping below that mark would cost the airport $500,000 in federal funding. The airport will not be penalized for COVID-19-related losses as the DOT has pushed back these rules until October 2021, which marks the start of the Federal Fiscal Year.
The airport operates on a $440,000 budget. About half of this money is spent on wages and another $48,000 pays for the airport's utilities.
As for income while the airport is supported by local governmental agencies, about $200,000 comes from taxpayer dollars, it receives about $300,000 in additional income through rent payments for hangar space and kickbacks on car rentals.
The airport also receives about $50,000 from the state to do advertising and is required to spend $12,000 of its own money on advertising.
The airport conducts a variety of construction projects each year.
Over the next five years, the airport will be responsible for more than $500,000 in project costs. In contrast, the airport is expected to receive $5.1 million in grants.
According to Sandburg, the 18/36 runway is nearly completed, but further construction had to be put on hold. The last step is to put down paint on the runway. However, with the weather expected to be below freezing for the next few months, Sandburg said putting down pavement markers any time soon would be unwise.
Former airport director Mary Beaird called the runway the most important project she had undertaken in her tenure. The project cost $12.2 million and the airport had to put up $1.2 million for the project, with the rest coming from the Iowa DOT.
The airport has four projects scheduled this year. SEIRA purchased a home on Summer Street to demolish. Demolition of the structure, which was purchased when it was put up for sale due to the home being in the airport's runway approaches, is expected to cost $140,000, with the airport paying $14,000.
The remodel of the airport terminal will finally be completed later this year with the replacement of the terminal's roof.
"We had to do it in two phases due to the money," Sandburg explained.
The project will cost $180,000 and the airport will be responsible for $18,000.
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