News Photo by Julie Riddle Part-time Northeast Michigan residents Jacci and Scott White wait for a flight to their Florida home at the Alpena County Regional Airport on Thursday.

ALPENA — The $18 million promised to the Alpena County Regional Airport by the federal government will help officials prepare for the future, even as the present looks brighter for the travel industry, airport officials said this week.

May enplanements at the airport flew close to pre-pandemic levels, according to Airport Manager Steven Smigelski.

Sharon Elwell, an Onaway resident waiting to board a plane for the first time since the pandemic started, said on Thursday she didn’t see flying as a health risk.

“As long as the plane stays in the air, that’s all I care (about),” said Elwell, eager to attend her granddaughter’s birthday party and see her new grandson for the first time.

Other travellers seem to be comfortable flying, as well, numbers show.

Nearly 1,000 people flew out of the Alpena airport in May, in stark contrast to the 99 who flew in May of 2020. The previous May saw just over 1,000, the highest enplanement number for that month since 2013.

After low passenger numbers at the beginning of the year, the airport logged more than 3,200 enplanements through the end of May, a mark not reached until the end of July last year.

Florida couple Scott and Jacci White, headed home on Thursday, said the whole city of Alpena is busier than they’ve ever seen it. Florida is jammed with tourists, they reported, making Northeast Michigan appealing as a getaway, even given this week’s hot weather.

The Whites, who own a home on Grand Lake, applauded the low cost of flying out of Alpena and called the new airport terminal a vast improvement since the last time they visited the area.

More new buildings are on the way, Smigelski said. Once the airport gets the thumbs up from the Federal Aviation Administration — within the next 90 days, Smigelski hopes — planners can start construction of private and corporate hangars. Airport officials also plan to expand the south cargo ramp and upgrade taxi lanes.

The projects — funded by the $18 million awarded to the airport as part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act — will make the airport more attractive to companies such as FedEx or UPS, should they consider expanding to Alpena, Smigelski said.

Such partnerships could allow the airport to generate enough revenue to not need county funding, according to Smigelski.

“We want to get out of taxpayers’ pockets as best we can,” the airport manager said.

The federal money has been used to hire several new staff members and will fund new ground support equipment. An outdated runway sweeper, already replaced by a new model, was donated to the Oscoda-Wurtsmith Airport, which receives much less financial help from the government, Smigelski said.