Provo Municipal Airport welcomes first commercial flight

Provo Municipal Airport welcomes first commercial flight


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PROVO — Utah County has waited over 50 years for regularly scheduled commercial airline service. Having to wait another 25 minutes for the Frontier Airlines maiden flight from Denver Monday night didn't seem to bother anybody much.

The 99-passenger Embraer 190 finally touched down to cheers and a water cannon salute, courtesy of two lime green Provo Fire and Rescue water tankers.

The flight had been delayed due to thunderstorms.


15 percent of the Denver-bound traffic leaving Salt Lake International Airport came out of the Provo Municipal Airport area. -Frontier Airlines

Steve Gleason, manager at the Provo Municipal Airport for the last 12 years, ticked through the events that made the day possible.

He said the floods of 1983 made it necessary to build a 15-foot dike and moat system around the perimeter of the airport. In 1999, the runway was extended 1,000 feet, allowing large commercial jets to land.

In 2000, airport officials wrote a master plan with Monday's events as one of its goals. That year, the airport also got certified to handle planes carrying over 30 passengers. In 2005, an air traffic control tower was built and nine months ago, installation of a $5 million radar facility began. It should be complete in another three months, Gleason said.

Upon completion of the physical logistics, officials went hunting for an airline.

Between about six airlines considered, a match was made with Frontier, which had the right sized planes and a hub in nearby Denver.

Frontier officials told airport planners that they had three months to be ready. That led to explosion of more activity, Gleason said.


The flight out to the airline's Denver hub will leave at 8:30 a.m. each day with a return flight landing at 9:15 p.m. daily.

"I've been living here at the airport for the last three months," he said. A new terminal wing to house Transportation Security Administration screening processes, baggage handling and passenger waiting, had to be built to accommodate the new fliers. It was completed in just 50 days.

Now, both Frontier and the Provo Municipal Airport plan just one daily departure at 8:30 a.m. and one arrival, at 9:15 p.m. Both flights will be in and out of Denver.

"We'll try just one flight and see how it goes first," said Matt Kleis, a city manager for Frontier Airlines, who was in town for the first flight. Passengers for Tuesday's inaugural roundtrip include Gov. Gary Herbert; Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah; Brigham Young University President Cecil Samuelson and Cosmo the Cougar.

Gleason said he looks to a day when eight to 10 flights a day are handled at the once fledgling municipal airport.

"We won't ever be Salt Lake International," he said.

Provo City Public Works Director Merrill Bingham said the facility's new addition "is nice. You can park across the road and walk across the street to the terminal … and when you're home, you're home."

Provo is only the second airport along the Wasatch Front to offer commercial service, but Vernal, Moab, Cedar City, St. George and Wendover, which are also municipal airports, already do.

Email:lbrubaker@desnews.com

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