Jul. 18—MORGANTOWN—7, 302 enplanements in six months.
That’s 7, 302 paying customers boarding aircraft at the Morgantown Municipal Airport between Jan. 1 and June 30.
To get some perspective on the impact new Essential Air Service carrier SkyWest Airlines has had since taking over for Southern Airways Express in December, consider the enplanement number this time last year was about 3, 600.
For all of 2024, the count was just over 7, 700—a good year by recent standards, as it marked just the second time in a decade the airport surpassed 7, 300.
This year, the state’s only city-owned airport is on pace to fly past 14, 000.
And they’re just getting warmed up.
“When SkyWest presented their service to us, they felt that they would be able to get close to 20, 000 passengers a year, ” Airport Director Jon Vrabel said. “They didn’t think it would happen maybe the first year, but possibly starting in years two and three.”
For small airports, enplanement numbers mean big money.
In basic terms, falling short of 10, 000 enplanements — as MGW has done each year since 2011—has traditionally slashed the amount of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program dollars received from $1 million to $150, 000 annually.
AIP funds are capital improvement and infrastructure dollars, making them critical for airports looking at expensive facility upgrades, like, for example, the $60-million-plus runway extension project underway at MGW.
Consistently missing out on those AIP funds was heavy on the collective mind of the selection committee this time last year as it considered staying with Southern Airways—the city’s EAS carrier since 2016—or taking off in a different direction.
Essential Air Service, or EAS, is a federal subsidy provided directly to carriers to offset the cost of rural operations and ensure air service in smaller communities.
“It is impossible to be productive in today’s world and stay where we’re at, ” former City Manager Kim Haws said at the time. “I feel very strongly that we need to move forward and increase, not only enplanements, but the speed with which we are attempting to extend the runway.”
It certainly appears as if the first box has been checked, which should help with the second.
The project to extend the MGW runway by 1, 001 feet to 6, 200 feet is expected to conclude sometime between 2028 and 2030, depending on the flow of funding.
When it meets Tuesday, Morgantown City Council will consider receipt of a $9.5-million grant from the FAA for construction of Phase 5 and the design of Phase 6 of the project. In order to accept the grant, the city must provide a $500, 000 local match.
Once complete, the extension will allow MGW to step up in terms of the variety of aircraft it can accommodate. It will also allow its own carrier to fully utilize the 50-seat Bombardier CRJ200 jets that make up the bulk of its fleet.
“The runway length here limits how many passengers they can carry on the Chicago flight. So, that’s been restricted down to somewhere between 32 and 40. During the summer, it’s down around 32 and it’s up in the 40s in the winter, ” Vrabel said, explaining the calculation comes down to weight and air density.
“In the summer, the air is thinner and the airplane doesn’t perform as well. So it needs more runway to get off the ground with the same amount of weight, ” he said.
SkyWest offers daily flights from Morgantown to Dulles International Airport, in Virginia, and Chicago O’Hare International Airport.
“They’re just a very professional company. We see that across the board with them and they’ve been great to work with ; easy to work with. They conduct business very much like all the major carriers do, ” Vrabel said of SkyWest.
A representative of the carrier said the support is appreciated.
“The Morgantown community has shown incredible support for their local air service since the first United Express flights, operated by Skywest, began last December. We are pleased that so many people have taken advantage of flights to both Chicago and Washington, D.C., and the community is continuing to utilize and enjoy SkyWest’s reliable, convenient travel options for Morgantown travelers.”