Mason City Airport to Receive Over $1 Million in Funding from State

Mar. 16—A busy week for the Mason City Municipal Airport continues, but this time with some positive news.

On Wednesday, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced over $100 million in funding for airport infrastructure to be distributed across Iowa. Mason City is one of the airports set to receive funding in the way of approximately $1.5 million.

"The funding that was released today is historic," airport manager David Sims said. "The state of Iowa has never provided this level of infrastructure funding to airports in the past."

" Iowa's commercial airports play a vital role in supporting the economic development and prosperity of our state, and we need to ensure that continues to be the case for many more years to come," Gov. Reynolds said in a statement. "This significant investment will help maintain momentum and encourage ongoing growth through transformative projects that will greatly benefit Iowans and other travelers that utilize our air transportation system."

Sims said that the $1.5 million in funding is massive for Mason City, as it is currently intended to fund a set of new hangers at the airport. Originally, part of the federal funding received through the CARES Act was going to be used for the new hangers, according to Sims, but the funding from Gov. Reynolds allows for the federal funding to be used exclusively on the new terminal project.

Those airport hangers are already designed and are just awaiting the beginning of construction, according to Sims.

"We are very, very excited," Sims said of the funding. "We're very grateful to the Governor's office for seeing the need and providing the funding."

In addition to Mason City, the Des Moines, Dubuque, Eastern Iowa, Fort Dodge, Sioux City, Southeast Iowa and Waterloo airports are all set to receive at least $1.5 million in funding.

The Des Moines airport is set to receive more than half of the available funding, netting a total of $58.7 million.

The funding news from the Gov. Reynolds continues what has been a hectic past few days over at the airport. At the tail end of last week, SkyWest announced that it would be discontinuing its service in Mason City causing the airport to seek a new provider over the next few months.

Mason City Airport is currently in the midst of planning its over $13 million terminal project, which aims to build a brand new airport terminal to replace the current one. Sims hopes construction will begin on that project later this year.

Daily flights are offered to and from Chicago O'Hare International Airport through SkyWest, and will continue to be until a replacement airline is secured.

Zachary Dupont covers local government and business development for the Globe Gazette. You can reach him at 641-421-0533 or [email protected]. Follow Zachary on Twitter at @ZachNDupont

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