The six general aviation airports operated by the Metropolitan\nAirports Commission (MAC) collectively grew operations in 2020 by 2 percent to\ntotal 326,044, or 6,381 more takeoffs and landings than in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The general aviation airports are often referred to as reliever\nairports because they relieve congestion that would otherwise occur at the\nMAC\u2019s major airport, Minneapolis-St. Paul International (MSP).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The increase bucks the trend of U.S. commercial airports which\nsuffered steep declines in activity last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. MSP\nreported a 40 percent decline in operations and a 62 percent decline in\npassengers in 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flying Cloud Airport (FCM) located in Eden Prairie, MN, and\nAirlake Airport (LVN) located in Lakeville, MN, drove the operations increase\nin the MAC reliever airport system. Operations at FCM were up 19 percent,\nnearly 20,000 operations, over 2019. LVN activity increased by 5 percent over\n2019, with nearly 1,500 additional operations in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Flying Cloud set some new daily operations records in\n2020. On May 12, FCM was the 13th busiest airport in the country\n(commercial or general aviation), and on June 19, FCM marked its eighth busiest\nday of the past decade with more than 750 flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhile the pandemic forced steep declines in corporate travel\nand business jet activity, it appeared to open up opportunities for more flight\ntraining activities and leisure flying in general,\u201d said Joe Harris, director\nof reliever airports for the MAC. \u201cPeople had more time to fly. And for many,\nit was a great way to get outdoors and see the sights from a safe social\ndistance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the catalysts for the increase in operations at FCM was\nthe temporary closure of many universities. Students enrolled in aviation\nprograms around the United States returned home to the Twin Cities to continue\ntheir instruction at one of the many flight schools located at the MAC\u2019s system\nof reliever airports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
St. Paul Downtown Airport (STP), which serves more corporate flying\nactivity, recording a 26 percent decrease in operations. STP operations were\nalso limited by reduced air traffic tower hours, also due to the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The MAC\u2019s three remaining reliever airports \u2013 Lake Elmo (21D),\nAnoka County-Blaine (ANE), and Crystal (MIC) \u2013 each saw a less than 5 percent\ndecrease in operations, with ANE down only 1 percent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
| \n Airport\n <\/td> | \n 2019\n <\/td> | \n 2020\n <\/td> | \n Change\n <\/td> | \n %\n Change\n <\/td><\/tr> |
| \n 21D\n <\/td> | \n 31,208\n <\/td> | \n 29,799\n <\/td> | \n -1,409\n <\/td> | \n -4.50%\n <\/td><\/tr> |
| \n ANE\n <\/td> | \n 71,740\n <\/td> | \n 70,852\n <\/td> | \n -888\n <\/td> | \n -1.20%\n <\/td><\/tr> |
| \n FCM\n <\/td> | \n 104,405\n <\/td> | \n 124,382\n <\/td> | \n 19,977\n <\/td> | \n 19.10%\n <\/td><\/tr> |
| \n LVN\n <\/td> | \n 29,835\n <\/td> | \n 31,314\n <\/td> | \n 1,479\n <\/td> | \n 5.00%\n <\/td><\/tr> |
| \n MIC\n <\/td> | \n 41,541\n <\/td> | \n 39,509\n <\/td> | \n -2,032\n <\/td> | \n -4.90%\n <\/td><\/tr> |
| \n STP\n <\/td> | \n 40,394\n <\/td> | \n 30,188\n <\/td> | \n -10,746\n <\/td> | \n -26.30%\n <\/td><\/tr> |
| \n Total\n <\/td> | \n 319,663\n <\/td> | \n 326,044\n <\/td> | \n 6,381\n <\/td> | \n 2.00%\n <\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n \u201cAs the last year demonstrated, there\u2019s a strong demand across\nour general aviation system. That\u2019s why it\u2019s so important we continue to invest\nin infrastructure to make the airports as safe and efficient as possible,\u201d said\nBrian Ryks, CEO of the MAC. \u201cWe completed a major runway extension and airfield\nreconfiguration project at Crystal in 2020, and this year we\u2019ll complete a\nmajor phase in a $5 million airfield project at Lake Elmo to extend the runway\nand a parallel taxiway that will incorporate the latest safety measures to\nsupport activities there.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Lake Elmo project is less than half of the $11.5 million the\nMAC has budgeted for capital improvements at its general aviation airports in\n2021. Aviation demand is also spurring private investment, with more than a\ndozen hangars completed or under construction in the last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The MAC\u2019s reliever airport system generates an estimated $756\nmillion a year for the area economy and supports more than 3,600 jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The six general aviation airports operated by the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) collectively grew operations in 2020 by 2 percent to total 326,044, or 6,381 more takeoffs and landings than in 2019. The general aviation airports are often referred to as reliever airports because they relieve congestion that would otherwise occur at the MAC\u2019s major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-minnesota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Crystal-Airport-MSP.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17622"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17624,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17622\/revisions\/17624"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |