Going commercial?

A discussion during the regularly scheduled Saratoga Airport Board meeting on July 11 revealed Shively Airfield qualifies through the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to operate as a commercial airport. Members of the board, however, were cautioned at a recent joint meeting that going commercial would invite a new series of frustrations and would increase the burden on the Town of Saratoga.

The board also discussed an ongoing issue with taxiways at the airfield being labeled as “non-standard” and discouraging larger jets from landing as well as the possibility of implementing landing fees for higher impact aircraft. The airfield is also still without the use of precision approach path indicators (PAPIs) until the FAA receives an agreement from the Town of Saratoga to commission the PAPIs.

“I think we may work on that at our Tuesday night council meeting, as far as getting that agreement. It’s got to go through the proper chain of government as far as being approved by the council for the mayor to sign,” said Richard Raymer, town council representative.

Raymer, along with airport board members Arlen Hughes and Ellie Dana, provided board chairman Lance Grubb with an update from a joint conference with state and federal officials they had attended. According to Raymer, the meeting was beneficial as it provided information for the board on how to move forward with the airport and in which direction it could go.

“You have to have a certain number of planes to go to that next category, that next level, and we’re far past that,” said Raymer. “The big impact on the airport was always Conquistadors and now that’s almost a weekly occurrence in the amount of traffic around the airport.”

Dana added that it was discovered that Shively Airfield could qualify to operate as a commercial airport, but that it was discouraged by both Wyoming Department of Transportation and the FAA.

“I don’t think we can qualify. Every airport in the state is continually trying to meet that 10,000 enplanements (passenger boardings) to maintain the federal funding for a commercial airport,” said Kim Lorenzen, Saratoga Airport Board member.

“Actually, we qualify,” replied Raymer.

According to literature available on the FAA website, publicly owned airports can qualify for commercial service if they have at least 2,500 passenger boardings each calendar year and receive scheduled passenger service. While a primary commercial service airport would have to have more than 10,000 passenger boardings, a non-primary commercial service airport could not exceed 10,000 passenger boardings.

“We do, but they recommend we not pursue it, right?” asked Grubb.

“Basically what they said was, ‘Look, we can understand why you might want it, but the burden that you take on when you do it is huge,’ and their advice is don’t be foolish because that’s a huge burden for us no matter where we get the funding,” said Dana.

“I’ve been going to aeronautics meetings for years and Casper, Rock Springs, Laramie and Cheyenne are all fighting to keep airline service,” said Lorenzen.

Although, according to documentation from the Laramie Regional Airport Board, the regional airport in Laramie had nearly 30,000 enplanements and deplanements in 2016 and experienced the second highest growth in the state with an increase of 9.6 percent.

According to Dana, if the Saratoga Airport Board were to move towards establishing commercial service it would also require the airport to have on-site emergency and fire equipment as well as security.

The discussion moved onto the possible implementation of landing fees. Dana informed the board that airports in Pinedale, Cody and Laramie have all recently Laramie have all recently implemented landing fees to offset the impact that the larger aircraft have on the lifespan of facilities.

“As we address the issue of town funding versus community funding, with our increased commercial volume and impact on our runway we should consider implementing landing fees,” said Dana.

“Obviously our airport is a critical asset to this community and I feel that the town is always going to stand behind it, but as we get more use and more impact on our airport, these projects, the lifespan of them are shrinking. The resurface we just did was built off a model that was for a fraction of the traffic we get now,” Raymer said.

The resurfacing project was, according to information made available to the Saratoga Sun, a total of $3.4 million. While the town’s contribution was only four percent of the cost of the project, that still brought the total amount paid by the town to just over $130,000. The FAA contributed the majority of the funding with 90 percent, approximately $3 million, and the State of Wyoming contributed six percent at $205,000.

“It’s time for some of the bigger, more impact users, to have some skin in the game as opposed to just the town,” said Raymer. “I don’t see these heavy users just throwing their hands up in two years and going ‘Alright, we’re done.’ The needs are going to increase and the way that the funds are coming about, with all the towns, the counties and the state, everybody’s having to shrink their budgets up.”

In the most recent WYDOT Rates and Charges Guide, published in 2011, charges for landing of general aviation varies from as low as six cents per 1,000 pounds to four dollars per 1,000 pounds depending on the region the airport is located.

In other business, the grooving of the recently resurfaced runway will have begun on Friday, July 13 at 8 p.m. and will continue for the following twelve nights running from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. The seal coat project of the runway has also been scheduled and will begin on July 30 and is expected to finish by Aug. 1 with the airport being able to reopen on the morning of Aug. 2.

The next meeting of the Saratoga Airport Board will be at 1 p.m. on Aug. 8, 2018 at the Saratoga Town Hall.