County Airport Marks One Year In Airport Management

There won’t be any huge celebrations marking one year. No balloons, no flowers, no parties, only a silent passing of the one year anniversary since Valley County took over the Wokal Field Glasgow International Airport.

While the airport is out of sight, out of mind for most of the local community, the economic impact is big enough it can be felt. There hasn’t been a recent economic impact study on the local airport, but the most recent one finished in 2012 estimates statewide airports provide 18,800 jobs, have over $600 million in payroll and have an economic impact of $1.56 billion. It’s hard to think about the little Glasgow making a big impact, but the airport employs around 29 people, with a payroll over half a million and an estimated economic impact of $1.5 million.

“And that was before the Bakken started to effect our airport,” Kristie Brabeck, chair of the Valley County Airport Board said.

A second round of impacts estimated another 53 jobs, $1.6 million in payroll and a total of $5.1 million in economic impact. That second round would include suppliers for the airport, air dependent businesses, visitor dependent businesses and consumer products and sales. The total impact ads up to 132 jobs, $4 million in wages and $12.8 million in economic activity.

Valley County

So knowing what kind of impact the airport has on the community, the airport board recommended to the county commissioners to take over the airport when the previous Forward Base Operator (FBO) pulled out and ended their contract in 2013. Choice Aviation have a 90-day notice that they would end their services, which included fuel sales.

Brabeck explained that they were pretty much starting from scratch and flying blind at that point. She said they had to start from scratch. They visited several airports and did research on how other counties handled their airport and found that Glasgow was actually unique having a contracted FBO on site.

Without the help of Gary Martin, a local spray pilot who has been involved heavily with the local airport, Brabeck said they were able to move forward. He helped get everything started.

“It was a whole new ball game for the county,” Brabeck said. “We had to pay for set up of purchasing equipment we didn’t own, like fuel trucks and pumps.”

She explained that she had spent a lot of time up at the airport. She knew Vick Wokal and remembers playing on planes at the airport. While she herself wasn’t a pilot, the experience from several on the airport board helped play a big part in the success of keeping the airport up and running. She joked that she was able to drink a lot less as things have gone much better over time. The support from the local community and the flying community was very helpful in the transition.

The airport manager was hired on in February. Lucas Locke came in with experience and a passion for his job. He brought knowledge and added a Facebook page, Brabeck joked. He was able to help with the daily operations and keeping things organized.

County Commissioner Dave Pippin explained that the went from a budget of about $270,000 up to $750,000. He said that the airport was invaluable to the community and that they have been on board trying to keep the airport up to speed. They changed hours at the airport and now provide services, like fueling, hangar rental and they are on call for 24-hours.

As of Jan. 1 up to date, the airport has sold 93,000 gallons of fuel, that adds up to about $5 million in sales. The budget for the airport is still not set in stone as the learning curve is still in swing. Brabeck said that they’d have a more clear picture on how the numbers will fall in a month or two.

Locke explained that they lowered prices of the fuel, using the Phillips 66 brand. He said that the main source of income for the airport is fuel sales. Those fuel sales have come from people all over. A few oil planes, visitors from Canada, hunting parties from Texas, Virginia, Georgia and other places.

Currently the airport is working with TSA on another project. They’re hoping to add new equipment to the airport that will cause a partial remodel to fit it. TSA is looking to expand in smaller airports and make a few adjustments as well.

Locke said that the hope to eventually build a new airport building one day. They have visions of growth for the future, but that takes a lot of money, something the airport doesn’t have a lot of just yet. Their fuel sales are supporting the airport and will help come up with future projects wile repaving the taxiway.

Brabeck said that one of the services the airport is missing is airplane rentals. While a few flight instructors remain in the area, there aren’t any planes for rental, which is something common to other airports.

Currently the airport is still in a trial and error phase that will continue. Brabeck explained that the budget will continue to be amended as they continue and build up on tools and equipment needed to run the airport efficiently. She added that the community is welcome to go up to the airport and visit, ask questions and talk to staff.

Cape Air

While the county gets ready to surpass the one year mark, Cape Air has just celebrated one year in the Montana Essential Air market. They took over Dec. 10, 2013. They’ve been very pleasantly surprised with the rise in numbers they’ve seen in ridership. The Glasgow airport has seen 685 flights to and from Billings as of Dec. 17. That’s 3,653 passengers.

It’s hard to say which month is their busy season, as they just started out last year they had 230 riders in January. They peaked in August with 373. It might seem like small numbers when you compare all the riders across the state adds up to around 119,400 as of Nov. 14. But when compared to last year’s number in Glasgow, it went from 245 in November to 340.

The Montana Department of Transportation reports a major increase, almost doubling from the year before. A total on and off the plane of 6,880 was reported in the last year as of Nov. 14. Cape Air reports that they’ve only had 19 empty flights out of those 685. Which is pretty compared to Sidney, which is the busiest Cape Air location. They’ve had 21 empty flights, Wolf Point has had only 16.

Cape Air Marketing Manager for Montana Erin Hatzell explained that the Wolf Point airport and Glasgow seem to be battling for the second spot in Montana’s Essential Air Service. Their contract was for two years so they’ll begin working on the bid again in about a year.

“Last year was a crazy weather year, it was interesting to start when we did,” Hatzell said.

The extra cold snap last year started their first day of service in below zero temps. The weather didn’t seem to slow them down. They started out ticket prices at $49 one way. They had to increase that by $3 as TSA (Transportation Security Administration) added a tax that Cape Air had to pass onto the passenger. Hatzell said that to make it an even number the airline did absorb about 10 cents. But with a $52 ticket one way, it makes it more affordable.

Cape Air took place of Silver Airways. Smaller planes, a Cessna 402, make it a lot easier to maintain flights more frequently. Hatzell said that the Sidney market has flown 11,220 passengers as of last week. When compared to their Mid-West Essential Air services, where there’s almost quadruple the population, they flew out 9,869 down there.

“Really that is a testament to the need of Essential Air here,” Hatzell said. “And we’re just getting our feet on the ground in the Montana market.”

Whether or not they add more flights on the future is a question that they’ll have to address. They have to look at the contract for Essential Air and weigh in the restrictions they have. If there’s a need they will look to see if there’s a way to fulfill requests, such as a flight to Helena, but currently those flights would have to be added outside of subsidies and making it a lot less affordable to passengers.

Billings is where their base of operations is located. With Montana being a new market for the company they planned for problems with weather and maintenance, but Hatzell said that they haven’t run into major issues as of yet.

The company just celebrated their 25th year in September. Hatzell said that Cape Air is thankful for all the community support. She said that they’ve had a fun year and they enjoyed a sponsorship with the Fort Peck Theater this summer. She said that all communities in Northeastern Montana have been very supportive.

STAT Air

One of the largest customers of the Wokal Field Glasgow International Airport is Northeast Montana STAT Air Ambulance Cooperative. They are the number one fuel customer at the airport and they’ve also been seeing an upward trend in the last year.

Ted Schye, the chief pilot for STAT, said that they usually average between 40 and 45 flights in a month, but they’ve been averaging over 50 each month since the start of their fiscal year on July 1. As of last week they had 291 flights since that date.

“We’re not really sure why there’s an increase,” Schye said.

The upward trend in flights is both good and bad, good for business, bad that so many people are needing the service. STAT Air is a coop between four hospitals to help transport patients to larger hospitals with more services.

You can be sure that their services have a positive impact on the community. Their payroll is close to $1 million. Russell Dahl, a pilot for STAT Air explained that they started around 1984 for Fances Mahon Deaconess Hospital (FMDH). Being in a rural area the service was needed. Helicopters aren’t a good way to transport patients as the distance to Billings and Great Falls is too far. It also doesn’t fly as well in poor weather conditions.

Wolf Point, Poplar and Malta hospitals became part of the cooperative and they were able to purchase a larger and newer plane. Schye said that they head to Billings around 95 percent of the time. They’ve also taken patients to the Salt Lake City burn center, to Seattle, Fargo, Minot and other locations. The plane they currently have, a Pilatus P12, is much larger and can hold enough fuel to get to Texas if necessary.

They currently pay out between $20,000-30,000 each month for fuel.