News File Photo The Alpena County Regional Airport is seen in August 2023. The airport is on track to meet its 10,000 enplanement goal and earn $1 million from the federal government.

ALPENA — The Alpena County Regional Airport needs more than 500 enplanements before the end of the year to meet its 10,000 enplanements goal and earn $1 million from the federal government.

An enplanement is a paying customer who uses the airport for travel.

According to Airport Manager Steve Smigelski, the 10,000 enplanement benchmark set by the Federal Aviation Administration should be reached before November wraps up.

The money the airport receives can be used for needed equipment and upgrades, Smigelski said.

Last year, the airport failed to reach the 10,000 enplanement plateau because the main runway was closed for a complete reconstruction. At the time, the FAA indicated to Smigelski that if the goal was met in 2024, a waiver could be issued and the airport would still get its $1 million because of the circumstances.

On Friday, Smigelski said that ended up not being the case.

“The outgoing congress didn’t grant any wavers,” he said. “We still received about $250,000, but we lost out on $750,000.”

With the money the airport had from meeting the 10,000 enplanement goal for many years, the airport ordered two new snow plows to keep the runway and taxiways clean during winter weather that threatens operations. The airport is also ramping up its plan to construct T-hangars to lease out.

Smigelski said when the new hangars are complete next year, there will be 25 spaces available for lease. He added there is a great demand from private airplane owners who need a place to store their aircraft.

“There is a shortage of hangar space statewide and we should have no problem leasing out all of our space,” Smigelski said. “I have already received 30 letters of intent, so I think we won’t have any problem filling everything up.”

The airport and the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center are hosting a special ribbon-cutting event today at 1 p.m. that will include an F-16 landing on the redone runway.

The two-year, $60 million federally funded construction project, which included a combined $40 million in Department of Defense funds and $20 million of Federal Aviation Administration funds, included a collaborative multi-agency partnership. The project repaired the entire length of the primary runway which supports both military and commercial aircraft operations.

The project also relocated a Michigan Air National Guard-owned Aircraft Arresting System outside of the FAA’s Runway Safety Area and installed a new arresting system cable raising and lowering system to ensure the CRTC can provide support to fighter aircraft operations while ensuring the safety of commercial and general aviation aircraft.

The project forced the interruption of local commercial air service from SkyWest Airlines for three months, which caused the airport to miss its 10,000 enplanement goal.

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