Alpena County Regional Airport is a county-owned, public-use, joint civil-military

airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...

in Alpena County,

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The airport is located six

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Tod ...

s (7 mi, 11 km) west of the

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

of Alpena, off of M-32 . It straddles the boundary between Maple Ridge Township on the north and Wilson Township on the south. It is mostly used for

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations with the exception of commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services ...

, but is also served by one commercial airline, an affiliate of

Delta Connection Delta Connection is a regional airline brand name for Delta Air Lines, under which a number of individually owned regional airlines primarily operate short- and medium-haul routes. Mainline major air carriers often use regional airlines to ope ...

, with freight services provided by an affiliate of FedEx Feeder It is said to be the "Proud home of

Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center is a Michigan Air National Guard training facility. It is located west-northwest of Alpena, Michigan. Overview The Alpena CRTC is a year-round training facility. It provides premier support, facilit ...

," the host unit of the Michigan Air National Guard's Alpena Air National Guard Base. As per

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

records, the airport had 7,519 passenger boardings (enplanements) in

calendar year Generally speaking, a calendar year begins on the New Year's Day of the given calendar system and ends on the day before the following New Year's Day, and thus consists of a whole number of days. A year can also be measured by starting on any ...

2008, 7,638 enplanements in 2009, and 8,737 in 2010. It is included in the FAA

National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems The National Plan of Integrated Airport Systems (NPIAS) is an inventory of U.S. aviation infrastructure assets. NPIAS was developed and now maintained by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). It identifies existing and proposed airports tha ...

for 2017–2021, in which it is categorized as a non-hub primary commercial service facility.

History

Alpena County Regional Airport was founded after World War 1. It was formally dedicated in 1931, and the US Army Air Corps used the airport for training purposes until 1947, at which time it was handed over to Alpena County. The airport has been assigned to the Air National Guard since 1952 and is used for training. The airport started updates to its passenger terminal in the 1990s.

Great Lakes Airlines Great Lakes Airlines was an American regional airline operating domestic scheduled and charter services. Corporate headquarters were in Cheyenne, Wyoming, with a hub at Denver International Airport. As of November 2013, Great Lakes Airlines ...

provided service to Chicago until 1997, when

Northwest Airlines Northwest Airlines Corp. (NWA) was a major American airline founded in 1926 and absorbed into Delta Air Lines, Inc. by a merger. The merger, approved on October 29, 2008, made Delta the largest airline in the world until the American Airlines ...

began flights to Detroit with regional partner

Mesaba Airlines Mesaba Aviation, Inc. (operating as Mesaba Airlines) was an American regional airline based in Eagan, Minnesota From 2010 to 2012 the airline was a wholly owned subsidiary of Pinnacle Airlines Corporation with code sharing flights operated as De ...

. In 1999, the airport became eligible for Federal Airport Improvement Funds, which currently serve as the primary funding source for airport development.

SkyWest Airlines SkyWest Airlines is an American regional airline headquartered in St. George, Utah, United States. SkyWest is paid to staff, operate and maintain aircraft used on flights that are scheduled, marketed and sold by a partner mainline airline. Th ...

began servicing the airport in 2012 on behalf of

. In 2020, the airport received $17 million as part of the federal CARES act to upgrade facilities and maintain operational levels during the

COVID 19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

. The airport has had increasing passenger numbers throughout its history. In 2021, the airport received a $1 million subsidy from the FAA after passing a 10,000 enplanement threshold that year. In 2015, the airport was the site of drone test flights in order for the FAA to develop standards for integrating drones into national airspace. In early 2022, Alpena County and the airport were sued by Huron Aviation, the fuel provider at the airport, over concerns that the airport was trying to break up Huron's business relationship with SkyWest and seize control of the airport's fuel farm, which Huron Aviation claims to have invested in to build. Huron Aviation said Alpena sought quotes from competitors AvFuel and Alpena Ground Services in hopes they would offer lower quotes that the county could offer SkyWest. If SkyWest took a competing offer, Huron says it would have breached its contract with the county, giving the county the right to seize the fuel farm and give it to another provider. The county denies the allegations. In 2022, SkyWest provided controversy when they cut direct flights at Alpena, instead operating tag flights between Delta hubs via, at different times, Sault Ste. Marie and Pellston. The company had wanted to add flights to Minneapolis as well as Detroit in the summer of 2022, but it failed to sustain the FAA approval to do so.

Facilities and aircraft

Alpena County Regional Airport covers an area of at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

of above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ...

. It has two

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

s with

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...

surfaces: 1/19 is 9,001 by 150 feet (2,744 × 46 m) and 7/25 is 5,028 by 100 feet (1,533 × 30 m). For the 12-month period ending August 31, 2021, the airport had 5,252 aircraft operations (down from 9,790 in 2010), or roughly 14 per day: 44%

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...

, 40%

, and 20%

air taxi An air taxi is a small commercial aircraft that makes short flights on demand. In 2001 air taxi operations were promoted in the United States by a NASA and aerospace industry study on the potential Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) ...

. For the same time period, there were 23 aircraft based at this airport: 23 single-engine and 4 multi-engine airplanes. The airport has an FBO offering fuel, courtesy cars, a crew lounge, and showers.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Ridership statistics

In Media

Several scenes of the film ''

Die Hard 2 ''Die Hard 2'' (also known by its tagline ''Die Harder'')The film's onscreen title is ''Die Hard 2'', as also given at the initial home-video release'official website The film's original advertising used "Die Harder" as a tagline, and many rele ...

'' were shot there. The location was chosen in part because there was a need for snow, and the producers expected Alpena to produce. However, due to a lack of snowfall, artificial snow had to be used. Consequently, other filming was done at

Kincheloe Air Force Base Kincheloe Air Force Base was a United States Air Force (USAF) base during the Cold War. Built in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in 1943 during World War II, the base was in service The base was known by various names, including Kinross Munic ...

in Michigan's

Upper Peninsula The Upper Peninsula of Michigan – also known as Upper Michigan or colloquially the U.P. – is the northern and more elevated of the two major landmasses that make up the U.S. state of Michigan; it is separated from the Lower Peninsula by ...

Accidents & Incidents

*On August 12, 1984, a

Piper PA-12 The Piper PA-12 Super Cruiser is an American three-seat, high wing, single-engine conventional landing gear-equipped light aircraft that was produced by Piper Aircraft between 1946-48. The PA-12 was an upgraded and redesignated Piper J-5.Plane ...

was involved in an accident at the airport. *On March 13, 1986, an Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante operated by Simmons Airlines crashed while attempting an ILS approach in bad weather. The aircraft was attempting a second approach after going around the first time. The probable cause was found to be the flight crew's continued descent below the glideslope and through the published decision height without obtaining visual references of the runway. Contributing to the accident was an insufficient weather dissemination system. Three of the nine occupants were killsed. *On March 13, 2006, a

Saab 340B The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30-36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 different op ...

operated by Mesaba Airlines was substantially damaged on the ground before departing from the airport. After the engines were started for a flight to Detroit, it was found a stroller from an inbound passenger had not been offloaded. The pilots shut down the left engine to ease access. The agent retrieving the stroller lost their balance while exiting the aircraft; they dropped the stroller, which was subsequently blown under the fuselage by wind and into the aircraft's right main landing gear before impacting the right engine's propellers, which were spinning. Fragments from the stroller struck the fuselage after passing through the propeller, puncturing three holes and causing dents. The probable cause was found to be the station agent's inability to maintain control of the stroller when he lost his balance while exiting the cargo compartment. A contributing factor was high, gusting winds.

References

Notes

Citations

Other sources

* Essential Air Service documents
Docket OST-2009-0160
from the U.S. Department of Transportation: *
Ninety-day notice (July 14, 2009)
from Mesaba Aviation, Inc. of its intent to discontinue unsubsidized scheduled air service at the following communities, effective October 12, 2009: Paducah, KY; Alpena, MI; Muskegon, MI; Hancock, MI; Sault Ste. Marie, MI; International Falls, MN; Tupelo, MS and Eau Claire, WI. * Essential Air Service documents
Docket OST-2009-0300
from the U.S. Department of Transportation: *
Memorandum (November 19, 2009)
closing out docket DOT-2009-0160 and opening up eight new dockets for the various communities (Alpena, MI; Eau Claire, WI; Hancock/Houghton, MI; International Falls, MN; Muskegon, MI; Paducah, KY; Sault Ste. Marie, MI; Tupelo, MS). *
Order 2010-5-18 (May 13, 2010)
setting final past-period subsidy rates for Mesaba Airlines, Inc., d/b/a Delta Connection, for its forced service at Alpena and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, International Falls, Minnesota, and Tupelo, Mississippi. Also selecting Mesaba to provide essential air service (EAS) at three of these four communities on a prospective basis. At the fourth community, Tupelo, we are tentatively selecting Mesaba to provide service based on a pro-rata application of the rate Mesaba agreed to which the staff applied to a reduced service level. *
Ninety Day Notice (July 15, 2011)
from MESABA AVIATION, INC. and PINNACLE AIRLINES, INC. of termination of service at Alpena, MI. *
Order 2011-9-5 (September 13, 2011)
prohibiting suspension of service and requesting proposals *
Order 2012-6-3 (June 6, 2012)
extending the Essential Air Service obligation of the two wholly owned subsidiaries of Pinnacle Airlines Corporation—Mesaba Aviation, Inc. and Pinnacle Airlines, d/b/a Delta Connection at the eight communities listed below (Muscle Shoals, AL; Alpena, MI; Iron Mountain/Kingsford, MI; Brainerd, MN; International Falls, MN; Greenville, MS; Laurel/Hattiesburg, MS; Tupelo, MS) for 30 days, through, July 9, 2012.

External links

Alpena County Regional Airport
official site
Aerial image as of April 1998
from

USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, ...

The National Map ''The National Map'' is a collaborative effort of the United States Geological Survey (USGS) and other federal, state, and local agencies to improve and deliver topographic information for the United States. The purpose of the effort is to prov ...

'' *
{{authority control Airports in Michigan Essential Air Service Buildings and structures in Alpena County, Michigan Transportation in Alpena County, Michigan