JAMESTOWN — The Jamestown Regional Airport connects the rural areas to the rest of the U.S. and the world with commercial air service, according to Katie Hemmer, airport director.
Hemmer said Jamestown Regional Airport serves as a hub for the Jamestown area.
“This allows anybody within a 50-mile radius, or even beyond, to have access to commercial air travel,” she said.
She said the Essential Air Service contract with SkyWest Airlines allows Jamestown Regional Airport to provide access to commercial air travel. The airport also is a facility that is certified for commercial aircrafts.
“We have what's called part 139 certification,” Hemmer said. “The Federal Aviation Administration provides that level of certification to every airport that has scheduled commercial passenger planes, and so we have to have a high level of safety in all of our infrastructure in order to accommodate that.”
Major employers in Jamestown require air travel because they have business operations in other parts of the country, Hemmer said.
“For those large and small businesses that need to be able to travel out of here, that really creates a positive economic impact,” she said. “It allows them to do business here.”
When the economy is healthy in Jamestown, passenger boardings are healthy in Jamestown. When passenger boardings are healthy, that really supports the economy locally.
She said employees of major companies might need to travel outside of Jamestown but those same companies have people who need to come to Jamestown for business meetings.
“That would obviously create a positive economic impact, allowing us to capture even more dollars from those businesses in their activities as they are able to meet in Jamestown because they have direct flight in,” she said.
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Having commercial air service for any community is important for business, said Corry Shevlin, CEO of the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp. He said employees don’t have to drive 100 miles from Jamestown to get access to the rest of the country.
“With service to Denver, you can get in and out very conveniently which has been great for everybody in the surrounding region,” he said.
Jamestown Regional Airport offers direct flights to and from Denver on United Airlines, which is operated by SkyWest Airlines. SkyWest will provide essential air service at Jamestown Regional Airport through June 2027.
SkyWest currently offers 13 round trips per week to Denver from Jamestown Regional Airport.
The round trip to Denver has been beneficial for businesses and economic development in the Jamestown area, Hemmer said. She said SkyWest using United Airlines allows passengers to use all the perks and rewards associated with United.
Hemmer said the 50-passenger jet — the CRJ 200 — also serves the airport well.
“It creates a nice time from takeoff in Jamestown to landing in Denver,” she said. “It's a convenient flight. It works well into travel plans and is a nice ride. It really creates a good passenger experience.”
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Jamestown Regional Airport’s paid passenger boardings have increased since SkyWest began providing essential air service in June 2014. Before that, paid passenger boardings at the airport were 4,284 in 2010, 5,689 in 2011, 3,861 in 2012 and 2,672 in 2013. The airport had 3,428 and 7,996 paid passenger boardings in 2014 in 2015, respectively, before they climbed to 11,123 in 2016.
“We had our record number boardings underneath the SkyWest air service contracts and we would continue to see record boardings if we had a little different connection schedule,” she said.
Jamestown Regional Airport does not have an early-morning departure. Hemmer said the restoration of an early-morning departure would increase the number of paid passenger boardings.
“We're missing a part of the market right now because passengers simply cannot make the connections that they're looking for for their travel destinations, and so they're having to choose other airports to fly out of,” she said. “ ... We're hoping that we'll see an improved connection schedule coming up here in the future, so that we will continue to grow those passenger boardings.”
She said the airport can reach 12,000 paid passenger boardings in a year with the restoration of the early-morning departure.
“Our economy in Jamestown is growing at a rate that supports the passenger boardings reaching that number, and it really is going to be a matter of making sure that that connection schedule is available for both business and leisure travel,” Hemmer said.
In the future, she said there is a possibility within SkyWest’s operations to have another round trip to a second hub such as Chicago or Minneapolis. She said SkyWest utilizes different airlines such as United Airlines, Delta Airlines and Alaska Airlines.
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“I think that part of that is going to be a little bit of passenger demand, a little bit of aircraft and pilot availability, some airport availability,” she said.
Hemmer said there is a correlation between an increase in sales tax revenue and higher numbers in passenger boardings in Jamestown.
“When the economy is healthy in Jamestown, passenger boardings are healthy in Jamestown,” she said. “When passenger boardings are healthy, that really supports the economy locally.”
Essential Air Service program
Hemmer said the airport would not be able to support commercial passenger air service without the Essential Air Service program. Originally, she said airlines were regulated by the federal government and told where and how often to stop and which airports to stop at.
“Then when the model changed to move to a more market-driven approach so that flights were based on passenger demand, that potentially removed some of the cities the size of Jamestown out of it because we just have a smaller population,” she said
She said the Essential Air Service program incentivizes airlines to serve smaller communities like Jamestown so those passengers can have access to connecting flights into larger cities.
“It is a scaled subsidy based on actual cost for the airline to serve this area,” she said. “That is bid by the USDOT (U.S. Department of Transportation) and contracts that can range from one to five years.”
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Hemmer said the Essential Air Service program is primarily funded from the Airport & Airway Trust Fund.
“That is entirely funded by airline related travel funds so things like any taxes that you pay on flights, any taxes that are on fuel, things like that. It's the primary source for grants, in general, for all airports large and small,” she said.
Hemmer said Jamestown Regional Airport having commercial air service helps leverage dollars for infrastructure improvements.
“If we didn't have commercial service, we wouldn't have as many needs for the infrastructure,” she said. “We wouldn't have the grants for the infrastructure coming in for that positive economic impact in our community.”
If the airport gets 10,000 paid passenger boardings in a year, it qualifies for $1 million in entitlement funds from the federal Airport Improvement Program.
“That's the grant program that we utilize for the majority of our infrastructure and just sets us up for success as we kind of walk through these types of maintenance projects,” she said.
The airport is also eligible for $1 million through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
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“It provided an additional million dollars per year for five years in the same match percentage that we received from the airport Improvement Program funds,” Hemmer said. “So it's a 5% local match, 90% federal funding, and then 5% from the state aeronautics.”
Through the use of federal funds, the airport completed a rehabilitation project on its main runway, which also has economic impacts.
“First, there is a construction impact so when you have those federal funds come into the community, they're leveraged with a small percentage of local funds for that grant and those dollars circulate around in the community for that period of time,” Hemmer said. “I think the bigger impact on that is that we have the runway for our main commercial aircraft in its best condition, and that's what allows us to have those commercial flights come in.”
This summer, the crosswind runway will get crack sealing, a seal coat and new paint markings as part of a pavement preservation project.
“We did a full rehab of that runway in 2018,” she said.
Another project scheduled for this year includes an expansion to the building used to store snow-removal equipment. Hemmer said the 90-by-40-foot expansion will house the airport’s primary piece of snow-removal equipment — a big plow truck.
“We will bid that project this spring, and it would be great if it was constructed before the next season,” she said.
The project will utilize funds from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law but requires standards from the Build America, Buy America Act. The project requires steel and there’s now a demand on American steel, Hemmer said. She said the standard to build American along with tariffs being implemented on imported steel could cause the project to be delayed.
“We are looking at a completion date of that project to be November of 2026 but it could be done this year,” she said. “It's really kind of dependent on steel delivery time.”
Challenges for airport
Hemmer said the biggest challenge in the aviation industry is the pilot shortage. She said airlines are looking for pilots and it’s not an issue that can be resolved quickly because they require specific qualifications and training.
During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, many pilots were laid off or offered early retirements by airlines across the country, Hemmer said.
“SkyWest wasn’t one of them,” she said.
When air travel recovered after the pandemic, she said other airlines had a demand for pilots and pilots from regional airlines moved into a larger-scale operation.
“They've been working hard to fill that,” Hemmer said. “They have done well on that and so we're hoping that that success will then restore that early morning departure from Jamestown.”
Hemmer said the James Valley Career and Technology Center’s aviation class is already helping with the pilot shortage.
“They have had students who have moved through those programs who have gone on to pursue higher education in aviation to become pilots,” she said. “We need programming like that across the country. So proud of Jamestown for doing their part to start that introduction to that career path early so that those choices can be made early in a young student's life that they want to move through here and on to what path they want to do that.”
She said airports in general are working on recruiting and retaining employees. She said airports across the country are looking for employees for air traffic control and ground operations.
“We're fortunate here that our ground operations staff is full,” Hemmer said. “We're doing well there, but there are opportunities across the nation that are needed to be filled for these other airports and all of their segments.”
Another challenge includes updating aging infrastructure and aircraft.
“We just have to remember that all the physical things that support air travel require maintenance, innovation,” she said. “They are going to be transformed as technology transforms, and we want to make sure that that still maintains the safest environment possible for passengers and cargo and any other uses for air travel.”
Revenue sources
Jamestown Regional Airport receives revenue from land and industrial leases.
Hemmer said a majority of the buildings on airport land are privately owned. She said those owners have a land lease with the airport.
“The revenue to the airport is on the land lease,” she said.
She said the airport receives revenue from a lease on the building and land on eight T-hangars that it owns.
Hemmer said the airport has industrial leases with Collins Aerospace, Pembina Pipeline and General Implement Distributors.
“It creates a revenue source for the airport to have these land leases, and then it also helps provide a regulatory buffer to the airport,” she said. “There are regulations for the height that buildings can be, especially when they're adjacent to the end of a runway.”
The airport also receives revenue from crop and hay land tenants.
Another opportunity for a revenue source includes the land leases from a business locating in the JMS Aviation Park – a partnership with the Jamestown/Stutsman Development Corp. JMS Aviation Park is adjacent to Jamestown Regional Airport. JMS is the abbreviation and Federal Aviation Administration code for the Jamestown Regional Airport.
“The interior acres of that business park are required to be aeronautical use,” Hemmer said. “That could be anything from another fueler for aircraft, it could be like an aircraft mechanic, or it could be something as large as like a UPS or a FedEx style hub that requires that air connection so that would be a direct positive impact to the airport. There would be things like landing fees involved in it that would help financially for the airport.”
Shevlin said the JMS Aviation Park is an attractive opportunity for businesses that already has utility infrastructure in place.
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