Activity increases at Salina airport

Nov. 17--More airplanes have taken off and landed at Salina Municipal Airport in the past two months, and new equipment has made the operations safer.

Air traffic controllers logged a second busy month in October at the Salina Municipal Airport with more than 9,000 operations -- takeoffs and landings -- and much of that is due to a spike in training flights from student pilots at Kansas State University at Salina.

Tim Rogers, the Salina Airport Authority executive director, told the board of directors Wednesday morning that the Wildcat fliers are marking a lot of flight time, and the 9,249 operations in October was a 21 percent increase over the same month last year.

"The professional flight program is very active, so active that they need extra aircraft in the fleet," Rogers said.

Some new Cessna 172 airplanes have been added to the K-State fleet to handle demand, he said.

Heavy traffic from flight training should continue next semester, Rogers said.

SeaPort Airlines also reached a new high in October, counting 287 passengers and posting a load factor of 42 percent, meaning an average of nearly four persons boarded per flight. SeaPort flies nine-passenger planes.

The air carrier is expected to submit a bid to renew its Essential Air Service contract with the U.S. Department of Transportation. That contract period would begin in April 2012.

The transportation department has issued an order requesting proposals by Nov. 29. Salina will have an opportunity to submit comments on the proposals.

Given the success SeaPort has demonstrated in Salina, Rogers said it's time to encourage the DOT to consider a three- or four-year contract, which would provide a better situation for the carrier to invest in the market.

"I think it would provide the community more reassurance along those lines that the service will be here," Rogers said.

A new radar at Fort Riley has dramatically improved coverage at the Salina airport. The multimillion-dollar project that began in 2005 makes it possible to track airplanes longer that are taking off and landing at Salina. The air traffic control tower at the Salina airport began using the new radar in early November, said Bruce Boyle, tower manager.

Controllers can now watch airplanes approaching from the north down to 400 to 600 feet above ground, he said. Before, using only the Federal Aviation Administration radar near Hutchinson, they would lose track of airplanes from the north when they dropped below 3,000 to 3,500 feet above ground.

"We would lose them up around I-70. Now we see them almost clear down to landing," Boyle said.

While also using the Hutchinson radar, Salina controllers are enjoying better radar pictures both north and south of the airport.

In other developments, the airport authority board approved a bid of $1.549 million from Bauer & Son Construction of Wichita to renovate an airport hangar and a bid of $335,600 from Overhead Door of Wichita for two new hangar doors.

The board also approved a budget not to exceed $87,500 to equip the Aircraft Rescue Firefighting station that's under construction. Rogers said he expected the actual cost to be well under that budget.

-- Reporter Tim Unruh can be reached at 822-1419 or by email at [email protected].