Courtesy Photo The amount of passengers flying out of Alpena jumped in August. There were 1,531 enplanements last month and puts the Alpena County Regional Airport on track to record 10,000 enplanements which will score it a $1 million subsidy from the federal government.

ALPENA — It was another banner month at the Alpena County Regional Airport, as the airport posted its busiest August since 2013.

This morning, Airport Manager Steve Smigelski said there were 1,531 enplanements last month, which more than doubled the total from August 2020.

An enplanement is a paying passenger who boards an aircraft at an airport.

The total number of enplanements so far this year jumped to 7,467 and easily surpasses the year-to-date total from last year, when there were 778.

The 2020 numbers were lower because of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on air travel however.

Smigelski said that, if the enplanement numbers remain strong, it is likely the airport will meet or surpass its goal of 10,000 enplanements, which would entitle it to a $1 million subsidy from the Federal Aviation Administration.

He said because of the continuing pandemic, it is possible the federal government will grant waivers to airports who miss the empanelment mark.

If the government doesn’t grant the waivers, Smigelski said, Alpena should be in good shape to receive the money no matter what.

“I am sure we will meet it easily,” he said.

Some of the paying customers at the airport were due to the training exercises at the Alpena Combat Readiness Center, but Smigelski said it only made up a small percentage of the enplanement toal.

“A large majority was civilian traffic,” he said.