Rural airports in Eastern Washington are seeking to attract more general aviation business to fuel economic growth.

Their operators say that with little space available at Spokane's Felts Field and their relatively low rates, leased hangar and ground space for private airplanes is increasingly in demand at rural airports.

"Airports are a natural attraction for industry," says Spokane-based economic development consultant Joe Tortorelli. "They can take advantage of the ability to bring either customers in or small shipments."



In the short term, small airports generate direct revenue by leasing space for parking private airplanes, Tortorelli says. Hangar space is getting more difficult to find at urban airports such as Felts Field, in Spokane Valley, and Spokane International Airport on the West Plains, and is more affordable at rural airports. Rural communities, meanwhile, want more hangars because they provide a source of property tax revenue and help such communities attract businesses.

Deer Park Municipal Airport, which currently houses 102 planes, is working on an airport master plan that's expected to include at least $2 million in projects aimed at attracting additional aircraft space leases. A preliminary plan calls for continuing to add several new hangars at the airport each year. Meanwhile, the Port of Whitman County recently completed a $1 million runway upgrade project at the Port of Whitman Business Air Center that it operates near Colfax, Wash., and already has leased out all but one of the spaces available in a new six-bay hangar it is constructing. Both Davenport Municipal Airport, in Davenport, Wash., and Grand Coulee Dam Airport, near Electric City, Wash., are developing additional hangar space to meet demand from private pilots.

"Our lease rates are a lot lower than Felts Field," at 10 cents a square foot, says Steve Goemmel, city administrator at Davenport, which is about 35 miles west of Spokane on U.S. 2.

By comparison, the ground lease rate at Felts Field is between 19 cents a square foot and 21 cents a square foot, but there currently is no available space there, says Leisa Kosanke, marketing manager at Spokane International Airport. At Spokane International, which has plenty of room for expansion, ground leases for corporate and general aviation cost 21 cents a square foot per year, Kosanke says. Spokane Airports is owned jointly by Spokane County and the city of Spokane, which owns SIA's nearby business park.

Limitations of smaller airports include shorter runways, which limit the size of planes that can land, says Penni Loomis, contract manager of the Deer Park airport.

Air traffic direction at Davenport Municipal is limited to lights that are turned on at night and an Internet-based camera system, compared with tower control available at Spokane International, Goemmel says.

Improving airport facilities is part of the city of Davenport's comprehensive plan, and that city's goal is to get more people landing in Davenport as a springboard to generate revenue for the community, the city's Goemmel says.

To do that, it hopes to increase the number of ground leases it makes with aircraft owners and acquire additional space for more hangars, he says. Currently, the airport has the capacity for 15 planes in hangars it owns, and plans to add 20 more hangar spaces on airport property. Through a ground lease, an aircraft owner leases a space, often for 30 years, and then builds a hangar on the leased property. A 50-foot-by-50 space would cost about $250 a year, Goemmel says. Ultimately, the city would like to develop a light industrial district near the airport, he says.

Ken Nichols, a senior civil engineer in the Spokane office of Anchorage, Alaska-based USKH Inc., has worked on both Davenport's expansion project and a similar plan for Grand Coulee Dam Airport, which is owned and operated by Grant County Port District No. 7. Nichols says Grand Coulee has a waiting list for hangar space.

Debbie Snell, properties manager for the Port of Whitman County, says the port district sees its airport near Colfax as a means of increasing opportunities for economic development over time, and has seen an immediate benefit from developing hangar space and upgrading its facilities. Snell says the airport previously had so many holes in the taxiway that pilots would push their planes to the main runway.

"Because of our taxiway rebuild, we've gotten a lot more private plane activity," Snell says. "A lot of pilots have their planes tied down somewhere else and want their plane inside. We offer competitive land leases, so it's very attractive for people to build their private hangars."

With completion of a six-bay hangar this fall, the airport will have 12 publicly owned hangar spaces, and space for 10 additional privately owned hangar spaces. It also has two speculative buildings available for shop-hangar combination use, she says. Snell says the port district took over operation of the small airport there several years ago in hopes that it could add benefit to businesses that might locate at the nearby industrial park that it operates. She says that so far the benefits primarily have been attracting private pilots rather than businesses, and that the Port of Whitman County seeks to be conservative with expenditures at the airport, she says.

"The airport is a small rural airport, so we want to keep our investments in it reasonable," she says. She says that though one aviation-related business has been considering locating at the business park, the airport still is used primarily for private planes and for agricultural uses, such as crop dusting.

Still, the district also sees having a general aviation airport as a benefit over time and that supporting the airport is an important part of its overall goal of supporting economic development, Snell says.

"One of our primary missions of the port is that support of multimodal transportation. We've got our fingers in the airport, railroads and truck transportation," Snell says.

Loomis says hangar rentals generated about $70,000 for Deer Park airport last year. She says the airport made improvements in recent years to allow it to accommodate business jets on its 6,000-foot long runway, which sits on about 1,800 acres of property, increasing its appeal for general aviation traffic. About 100 planes are based there year-round, and the airport adds hangar space for four or five planes each year, Loomis says.

Fuel sales account for the bulk of Deer Park Municipal's revenue, Loomis says. Last year, it sold about $400,000 in fuel. Loomis says aviation fuel is one of the few fuels that generates sales tax revenues for the city. For gasoline, people pay road tax charges, but not sales tax, she says.

Davenport's Goemmel says that city would like to boost its revenues by offering fuel at the 77-acre airport, which has about 4,000 landings every year. Currently, pilots can purchase fuel from an agricultural concern, called Smith Air, that uses the airport as a base for its crop-dusting operations, but the city would like to launch its own fuel operation, he says.

"We're trying to get a fuel facility here," Goemmel says. "If you can be competitive at making 25 or 50 cents a gallon, you generate some revenue there."

A variety of uses

Rural airports fill a number of community needs, their operators say. They can become a place to base firefighting efforts in the summer months and attract recreational pilot groups that fly to different locations for air rallies, similar to motorcycle rallies, Goemmel says. He says businesspeople, such as a West Side businessman who's developing the upscale Hawk Creek Ranch Estates, near Davenport, regularly fly to the airport then drive the rest of the way to their destinations.

Tortorelli says that private airplane use has risen as the cost of small airplanes has decreased over the last few years.

Some aviation-related businesses have located in Deer Park because of the airport there, and Loomis thinks that demand for the 450 acres of light-industrial land nearby could take off in part because of accessibility to the airport. Already, some businesses occasionally have parts shipped to them via the airport, she says.

Loomis says the Deer Park airport has enjoyed an increase in business traffic, with the use of business jets growing slowly but steadily over the last eight or nine years, especially as fractional ownership in jets has reduced individuals' costs in flying and maintaining them, she says. She asserts that Deer Park Municipal is more convenient than Felts Field for people traveling to northeastern Washington or North Idaho for business or recreation.

"We put them an hour closer to their destination if they're going to Priest Lake or Pend Oreille or Colville," Loomis says. For example, she says, "We have one person who comes in from Santa Barbara that has a ranch in Cusick, and some that come from California because they have property at Priest Lake."

Snell says the Colfax airport attracts private pilots from within about 50 miles, and serves as a backup landing area for the nearby Whitman Hospital & Medical Center, in Colfax.

Funding projects

Rural airports receive a certain amount of money each year from the Federal Aviation Administration's Airport Improvement Program, which they are permitted to save, or "bank," for a up to few years to accomplish bigger projects, Loomis says.

The Washington state Department of Transportation's aviation division also contributes funds for projects at rural airports, Snell says.

Loomis says small airports such as Deer Park Municipal receive about $150,000 a year from the FAA. Those dollars are designated for safety upgrades and must be used for projects approved by the FAA. For example, she says, they can't be used for amenities such as a pilots' lounge, but can be used for lighting and runway improvements.

Projects recently completed or planned at rural airports in Eastern Washington include the following:

•The Deer Park Municipal Airport master plan likely will include at least $2 million in projects there over the next five years, including upgrading the airport's airplane parking area, also known as its ramp, to separate smaller aircraft from business jets better, Loomis says.

"Jet blast can be detrimental to a Cessna next to it," Loomis says.

•Davenport plans to extend its runway for future hangar development. It has spent $190,000 on adding a safety perimeter fence around part of the airport, which it paid for mostly with FAA funds.

Meanwhile, Davenport has set aside about $500,000 in FAA funds to acquire an additional 25 or 30 acres for continued development of its airfield, Goemmel says. It plans to extend its runway to 4,000 feet long from its current 2,700-foot length so it can accommodate bigger airplanes, and to add a taxiway that would enable it to construct additional hangars. It would complete the fence following the land acquisition, he says.

Recently, Davenport hired Halme Builders Inc., of Davenport, to construct a 36-foot by 24-foot aviation building with restroom and office facilities for use by pilots who land there. The building cost about $85,000, and was funded in part with a $10,000 grant from Lincoln County. Davenport recently added a vehicle parking lot at its airport and plans in the spring to buy a courtesy car to keep there for pilots to use, Goemmel says.

•Grand Coulee Dam Airport plans to combine a taxiway project, which will help it increase its available hangar space, with some high-priority FAA safety projects, such as widening the safety area for the runway, to help it obtain additional funds from the FAA if they are available. It currently is expecting to spend about $350,000 for those projects, USKH's Nichols says.

•The Port of Whitman County recently completed a $1 million redesign and upgrade of its 3,000-foot runway, and currently is building a $125,000 hangar that can accommodate six planes. There currently is room for about 10 additional private hangars on the airport property as well, Snell says.