Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
ST. GEORGE — You could probably ask Sandy Melville any question about the St. George airport, and at least on this day, there was no way she could be negative.
"It's a beautiful building. We're enjoying it. Our grandson is coming home from his mission in Minnesota," said Melville.
Instead of picking him up in Las Vegas or Salt Lake City, they could pick him up here at home in St. George.
Of course her grandson wasn't the only person using the airport.
"We had a good 2015. That's right. Numbers are up again and everything is looking good," said Rich Stehmeier, manager of St. George Regional Airport.
Stehmeier says roughly 174,000 passengers used the airport last year, which is a 9 to 10 percent increase from the year before, also a record year.
"The big thing is our Denver service. Obviously, that opened up additional traffic, and then, this past March, we started the second flight to Denver," said Stehmeier.
United Airlines handles flights to Denver, while Delta goes to Salt Lake City.
Both airlines use SkyWest Airlines based out of St. George as the carrier.
Numbers were so good this past year, flights to new destinations out of St. George are becoming a possibility.
"Our two biggest markets we'd like to get into are Phoenix and Los Angeles," said Stehmeier. "There is a big market between Utah and Arizona with families and businesses. Los Angeles, we went there in the past, but the flight was at a bad time of day. With a better time, that would attract business workers and our retired population would use it to go to cruise terminals. That's a big market."
The new St. George airport moved from the top of the bluff in the center of town to a location southeast of the city.
A new parkway recently opened, connecting the airport to Washington and Hurricane.
Plus, since 2010, Stehmeier says passenger traffic in and out of the airport is up 60 percent.
With those numbers, he thinks Phoenix and Los Angeles are real possibilities.
"We're working with the airlines, and I think, yeah, in the not too distant future, it'll happen," said Stehmeier.
