Alpena County airport reaches 10,000 enplanements
Will receive $1 million subsidy from the federal government
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ALPENA -- Alpena County Regional Airport meets its 10,000 enplanement goal three months early, racking in 10,123 for the year so far. Last year, the year to date (YTD) total ended September with 9,379 total enplanements.
Now that the airport has successfully reached 10,000 enplanements, it will receive a $1 million subsidy from the U.S. Department of Transportation for being a member of the Essential Air Service Program. This money can be used for operations or equipment.
Enplanements are the number of revenue passengers that board a flight, which includes transfer flights or original flights.
"We met them in September, so we're already over the 10,000 enplanement hurdles," Airport Manager Mick Higgins said at the Alpena County Facilities, Capital, and Strategic committee meeting on Oct. 21. "We beat it by a month from last year."
Higgins said that in total, the airport is up 174 enplanements for the month and 744 enplanements YTD.
According to Higgins' report to the Alpena County Board of Commissioners, the airport reached its 10,000 enplanement goal early despite bringing in less passengers in the month of September than in August.
The airport brought in 1,376 enplanements in September, while August had 1,644 paying passengers.
For Skywest fuel sales, Higgins said that the airport was "slightly lower," "about one airplane less" than this time last year, though he said that the airport was still on track for the year end totals.
"We're pretty much on target," he said. "We were up for the month, 5,000 gallons, but for the total for the year we are down, like I said, about one aircraft."
Last year, the airport had reached 15,986 in Skywest fuel sales, and this September, the airport reached 20,076 gallons. Despite the increase, the airport remains slightly behind last year’s total of 157,945 with 15,6379 in September 2026 fuel sales.
Despite the slight lag for Skywest, the airport brought in a significant increase of 25,857 gallons of retail jet fuel for the YTD totals. Higgins added that though there was an increase in retail jet fuel, the prices remain high.
"The only downside of that is ... the price," he said. "We're evening out, but it's ... the overhead that we've got, it's not as good as it looks."
OTHER AIRPORT UPDATES
The aircraft that crashed in Traverse City in September is currently being held at the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center (CRTC). Higgins told board members that the aircraft's flight did begin out of the Alpena.
"It's sitting in one of the hangars, they're still doing the investigation," he said. "But they found bird feathers in what was left of the engine so they're 100% thinking it was a bird strike."
He told board members that the Federal Aviation Association (FAA), Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), and other agencies visited the CRTC and airport.
"We had every agency you could imagine involved with this," he said. "We pretty much shut the airport down for 24 hours to make sure it wasn't a fuel related problem or something that came off our airfield."
"It's all on the military side, now," he added. "The county has nothing to do with the crash other than it initiated from our airport."
Despite the 24-hour closure following the crash, the airport continued to host military exercises which Higgins thought was a boost for the economy.
"I think all these exercises were a big boost for the economy," he said. "We probably had 10 to 12,000 people here, additionally, for the summer."
From Sept. 10 to Sept. 26, the airport hosted the 149th Fighter Wing from Kelly Field Texas. The Top Gun training occurred from Sept. 18 to Oct. 5.
T-HANGAR PROJECT UPDATES
Higgins told board members that the foundation work on the first building is complete for the new t-hangars.
In April, commissioners approved a bid for McArthur Construction to construct two 10 unit t-hangars for the amount of $2,277,847. The project received a total of four competitive bids.
Higgins commented on the quality of work, noting that the foundation looks well installed.
"The airport's going to fall out from under those buildings before those buildings come down," he said. "I've never seen that much groundwork done on a building like that. But, they'll be sturdy."
Kayla Wikaryasz can be reached at 989-358-5688 or kwikaryasz@TheAlpenaNews.com.