Next airport expansion on the drawing board

As Glacier Park International Airport wraps up a nine-year, $32 million capital improvement program, planning already is underway for terminal expansion within the next five to 10 years.

On the drawing board are plans to increase the terminal size in three directions — south, east and west — to eliminate “pinch points” such as the congested baggage claim area and accommodate anticipated airport growth.

“The next frontier for remodeling will be the baggage-claim area,” Airport Director Cindi Martin said. Rental-car counters would be relocated at the south end, still close to an enlarged baggage-claim area.

By expanding the airport to the south, additional gates also could be added.

“We want to have gates that are flexible,” Martin noted. “We can design gates for smaller aircraft during the off-seasons.”

Since 2006 air service at Glacier Park International, in terms of aircraft seats available and frequency of flights, is up 33 percent despite consolidation in the airline industry, she said.

“That’s pretty darn good in a community of 90,000,” Martin commented.

Because the terminal was built prior to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, it has been challenging space-wise to accommodate the equipment that’s now needed for security, Martin said.

Bumping out a portion of the west wall behind the airline ticket counters will make more room for explosive detection terminals and a consolidated baggage-handling facility behind the airline offices.

Pushing out sections of the glass east wall to encompass an area that is now landscaping will allow even more room in the ticket-counter area.

“We’re trying to keep on the current footprint,” Martin said.

One design idea involves lodge-like digital fireplaces in the waiting area near the airline counters.

“I’m always watching how people are rearranging the furniture and what they are using the space for, what people are wanting,” she said.

All of this proposed expansion is in the early stages of planning.

The Flathead County Airport Authority that operates the airport recently held its first planning session with an architectural team to begin bringing into focus future airport expansion needs and what carriers will be looking for, she said.

It’s too early for cost projections on future expansion, Martin added. Ninety percent of airport capital improvement projects are funded with federal appropriations, with the remaining 10 percent matched by the airport authority.

“It will come down to cost,” Martin said about future expansion. “Not everything is eligible for federal funding.”

Among the most immediate projects will be an expansion of the airline ramp on the south side and locating a de-icing facility on that ramp in 2017.

“We’re waiting for new EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) de-ice guidelines so we can design to that,” Martin said.

Starting next year and continuing through 2020, the airport will be doing pavement maintenance on the general aviation ramp and taxiways.

Martin knows all too well that keeping an airport in prime condition is a perpetual work in progress.

“We continue to rehab, remodel and reimagine the terminal to meet new demands,” Martin said, calling the nearly completed $32 million round of improvements “pretty aggressive for a small airport.”

The upgrades included the reconstruction of the full length of the taxiway, expansion and a redesign of the airport entrance road system and installation of a traffic light on U.S. 2.

A terminal remodel was a big piece of the upgrade, too. It included a security checkpoint expansion, revamped restaurant and gift shop space and revolving exit doors between the secure area and airport lobby.

The last major piece of the upgrade is rehabilitating the crosswind runway. That project, which won’t impact commercial air service, in underway and scheduled to wrap up this fall.

“We basically rebuilt every inch of pavement and built new pavement with the entrance roads,” Martin said.

While the life cycle of most airport pavement projects is 20 years, Glacier Park International’s pavement longevity is diminished, she noted, because of frost heaves, extreme weather and heavier loads on some parts of the runway system.

By 2024 the runway will need to be refurbished again, Martin said.

“We’re [planning] capital projects six years out,” she said. Even before some improvement projects are finished, placeholders are noted for future projects.

Airports are required by the Federal Aviation Administration to outline six-year capital improvement programs and prioritize how federal money would be spent for capital projects.

Martin called the airport master plan adopted by the airport authority in 2009 “a living plan.”

“There is a lot more in this master plan that is typically done,” she said. “It has a great baseline.”

While the airport master plan looks at the big picture of capital improvements, planning for the day-to-day operation of the facility is an equally strategic feat. The window between seasons has gotten narrower, Martin said, so there’s little down time once the summer rush subsides.

“In July we’re already talking snow,” she said, noting that she soon will hiring 30 or more winter “over-hires” for snow removal.

Martin described the winter snow removal as a ballet, with snowplows and de-icing equipment working in synchronized patterns.

“I’m from Florida, and if I can’t see the pavement you haven’t done your job,” she said. “We’ve been told we have the blackest pavement” during winter weather.

Dealing with the airline carriers also is an ongoing process.

“We’re working a whole season ahead with our carriers,” Martin said.

The Glacier Airline Enhancement and Retention Outreach group that is striving to expand air service has been an asset.

“With AERO, it’s a one-stop shop when I have airline development opportunities,” Martin said.

The outreach group had recent success in establishing weekly winter flights to Chicago.

The San Francisco Bay area, an already strong market for the Flathead Valley, is another area for growing air-service demand, Martin said.

“The airport is an important player in economic development,” she stressed. “We’re just as important as the hospital, schools, roads and retail. We’re part of the village.”

While Glacier Park International employs just 21 people, the airport is home to 200-plus jobs, Martin said, figuring in airline staffs, parking concession attendants, rental-care attendants, FedEx and UPS workers, air ambulance staff and so on. It translates into an $8 million payroll.

“We’re efficient and frugal. We recycle and repurpose,” Martin said. “We have 1,500 acres here and two outlying fields (the airport authority oversees the Ferndale and Whitefish runways). Our budget is less than $4 million a year and we put money in reserves every year. We work hard to be efficient.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com