Future of Idaho's Wood River Valley air service is uncertain

Expanding the current airport site, revisiting ideas to build a multi-county regional airport and adding transportation possibilities from Boise are a few options being considered for the future of the Friedman Memorial Airport in Hailey.

Over the past two weeks, the airport authority, Hailey City Council and Blaine County Commissioners have held public meetings on the future of the airport, which is operating under a special permit from the Federal Aviation Administration because of its small size.

The FAA last month “indefinitely” suspended work on an environmental impact study of plans to build for a new airport.

The public meetings are intended to help airport and community leaders and the FAA get ideas for next steps. The airport is critical to the resort community’s economy, said Sun Valley Board of Realtors Vice President Jed Grey.

“If we can’t bring new people into our community our industry is dead,” he said at the meeting Sept. 27.

Since 2006, when the airport board chose construction of a new facility at the “Site 10A,” about 17 miles south of Bellevue along Highway 75, cost estimates have risen from about $120 million to nearly $330 million, although half of that might have been federally funded.

But in an Aug. 22 letter to Friedman Airport Manager Rick Baird, FAA Northwest Mountain Region Manager Donna Taylor said the environmental impact study had been “indefinitely” suspended due to “increased anticipated cost of the project and potential impacts to wildlife.”

The agency is waiting to hear what direction the community wants to go with the project before moving forward with additional studies.

The airport board meets again next week. It will have several questions to answer before it comes up with another plan. There are no cost estimates available for expanding the current airport, building a regional facility or constructing an airport at a previously explored site.

There are also residents who oppose ideas to expand Friedman Memorial, saying it might harm their quality of life.

Friedman now operates under permitting constraints from the FAA because of its small size. The special permit has been granted with the understanding that airport officials will bring the field into compliance or build a larger airport elsewhere.

Wally Huffman, former Sun Valley Resort general manager, has long been supportive of making the necessary improvements at Friedman, which would keep air service conveniently close to the resort.

“We spent seven years considering an alternate site…..we cannot go along for the next seven years studying a solution,” he said.

But several residents said shifting the Friedman runway 1,800 feet to the south, which would expand the obstacle-free area to meet FAA standards, would harm quality of life and property values. They also questioned the impact on wildlife south of the airport.

Hailey resident Victor Thomas said no one north of Hailey would oppose expanding Friedman because it wouldn’t have a negative impact on them.

“A bigger, nicer airport would be more convenient,” Thomas said.