News File Photo The Alpena County Regional Airport is seen in this photo from August 2023. Last month, the airport saw 1,346 enplanements, helping it stay on track to reach 10,000 enplanements in the year.

ALPENA — A steady stream of travelers utilizing the Alpena County Regional Airport last month has nearly assured that the airport will reach 10,000 enplanements this year and receive its $1 million subsidy from the federal government.

Last year, the airport missed its goal of 10,000 enplanements due to a large runway project. However, it appears the Federal Aviation Administration is still going to allocate last year’s funding because missing the goal was not the fault of the airport or air service provider SkyWest.

Last year, the airport had only 7,526 enplanements at the end of the year because of the closure of the primary runway during its construction.

An enplanement is a paying passenger who flew out of Alpena.

According to Airport Manager Steve Smigelski, the airport had a whopping 1,346 enplanements in August, which easily surpassed the 482 for the same month last year when the runway project was closing down and flights were just beginning to go back online.

So far this year, the airport has amassed 7,435 enplanements and it only needs to average about 641 enplanements per month to reach the 10,000 plateau by the end of the year.

Smigelski said members of the U.S. military who flew into Alpena for the Northern Strike training exercise last month helped bolster the numbers, but people deciding to take a late summer trip was the driving factor for the elevated numbers.

“A lot of people wanted to get away for a vacation before school started,” Smigelski said. “The jets were pretty full last month, and so far this month, the parking lot has been pretty full, so that’s a good sign for September.”

Smigelski said after summer wraps up, there is typically a slight slowdown at the airport, but he doesn’t believe it will be enough to prevent the airport from hitting its 10,000 enplanement goal.

“We’re in really good shape and I don’t think we’ll have any problem reaching that mark,” he said.

After the airport fell short of its 10,000 enplanement target last year due to the construction project, the federal government said it was going to wait to see if the airport’s enplanements bounced back before giving it the money for 2023. Smigelski said he believes the government has kept its promise because he recently sent in an allocation request for new equipment and the FAA approved the request.

“I think that plan is already in play because they already authorized a purchase to buy two new runway plows for $1.5 million,” he said.

Last year, the runway plows broke down during a large snowstorm, which closed the airport and it forced mechanics to scramble to repair them, which took days. Smigelski said the snow removal equipment is all operating well now and ready for winter. He said large snow plows for airports take time to be built and delivered so they aren’t expected to arrive until late next spring.

Steve Schulwitz can be reached at 989-358-5689 or sschulwitz@thealpenanews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ss_alpenanews.com.