Great Bend Municipal Airport Manager Martin Miller had quite a bit of news for the Great Bend City Council this week, and it was all good — well, almost all.
The only fly in the ointment for the foreseeable future of the local airport appears to be the willingness of the federal officials to keep funding coming to rural airports.
However, that part of the puzzle is somewhat outside the local influence, and it still very much “up in the air.”
Federal involvement has been and continues to be important to improvements of the local facility, however, Miller noted, as he went through plans for development of the airport.
The good news is that in 2010 the airport saw an increase in “emplanements,” the number of people using the local passenger service, which reached 90 in December, compared to less than 30 in January.
Also up considerably in 2010 were the airport fuel sales, Miller reported.
And a great deal of the fuel sales are being made to pilots from outside the community, which brings new dollars into the local economy. Miller noted that 48 percent of fuel sales for 2010 were from transients, who learn about the local fuel rates on the Internet or elsewhere and fly in to take advantage of them.
Full service fueling, plus the airline sales made up 80 percent of the fuel sales, while self-service covered the other 20 percent, he added.
Also up for the year, Miller noted, was the monthly cash flow for the Fixed Base Operator, with a positive income of more than $20,300 for the year, compared to a $7,000 loss the year before.
Projects coming up, if federal funding continues, will include:
• 2012 — New fire equipment and building: $344,375, federal; $18,125, local.
• 2012 — Design work on parking apron: $95,599, federal; $5,032, local.
• 2013 — Construction on parking apron: $2.6 million, federal; $100,630, local.
• 2014 — Design work for runway reconstruction: $227,316, federal; $11,964, local.
• 2014 — Construction on runway: $3.8 million, federal; $201,280, local.