The awards were presented on Tuesday, March 8th, during the\nannual North Dakota Aviation Association\u2019s FLY-ND Conference awards banquet\nheld this year in Fargo. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grand Forks International Airport and Hillsboro Regional were recognized for excellence in community outreach, facility management, construction and beautification projects, and special events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grand Forks Int’l Airport Accomplishments for 2021:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n While airline passenger traffic continues its slow recovery\nnationwide, aircraft activity at Grand Forks International Airport is nearly as\nbusy as ever. As the home of the University of North Dakota\u2019s School of Aerospace\nSciences, hundreds of student pilots take to the skies over Grand Forks each\nsemester in a carefully orchestrated flurry of activity to train for careers in\nthe aviation industry. This activity helped Grand Forks International Airport\nachieve the extraordinary distinction of America\u2019s busiest airport on no less\nthan eleven separate days between March 1st and May 26th. The airport was\nranked as the 12th<\/sup> busiest airport in the country for 2021 with\n349,405 successful takeoffs and landings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2021 saw an impressive effort by the Grand Forks\nInternational Airport to tackle a series of projects that will improve its\nservices and capabilities. An Environmental Assessment was completed in a brisk\none-year timeframe and agreements were negotiated with neighboring landowners\nto acquire property for future airport expansion. Construction work was\ninitiated on the partial relocation of County Road 5 to enable an extension of\nthe airport\u2019s crosswind runway slated for next year. Several new hangars will soon\nbe constructed to house local private aircraft. The airport has also been\nworking closely with the Department of Homeland Security to develop a new\nCustoms and Border Protection facility, and a new air traffic control tower is\nunder design by the Federal Aviation Administration. Additionally, Grand Forks has\nacquired several new firefighting and snow removal vehicles to enhance safety\nat the airfield.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To the delight of hockey fans, the Grand Forks airport coordinated with the Ralph Englestad Arena, Allegiant Airlines, area travel agencies, and airport tenants to enable 1,500 excited fans to fly directly to Nashville, Tennessee on October 28th to attend the 2021 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game. This resulted in Grand Forks experiencing the single busiest day of passenger traffic in the airport\u2019s history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hillsboro Regional Airport Accomplishments for 2021:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The Hillsboro Airport Authority has shown great commitment\nto promoting the growth of aviation in North Dakota. Many Authority members are\nactive pilots and can be found at area continuing education training seminars.\nA new flight simulator was installed at the terminal to help train student\npilots and experienced aviators alike. The airport hosted a big fly-in event in\nAugust with pilots offering rides to the public and more than 30 aircraft from\nacross the region taking part. The team at Hillsboro also helped to create the\nfirst annual \u201cFly to Beach\u201d event with pilots from around the state flying into\nthe Beach Airport to attend the Medora Musical and spend the night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2021 was an outstanding year for activity at Hillsboro\nRegional Airport. Three newly minted pilots joined the ranks of the Hillsboro\nflying community, as well as twelve new aircraft. Business was up, with record\nfuel sales and two new aerial application businesses moving to the airfield.\nThe airport also continued their partnership with L3 Harris, who operates an\non-site radar station used to study Beyond Visual Line of Site operations of\ndrone aircraft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Multiple major construction projects were completed in 2021.\nA new airport beacon was installed early in the year. During the summer a\nfull-length taxiway was completed running parallel to the runway and included\nairfield drainage improvements and a lighting system. This new taxiway\ndramatically improved aircraft traffic circulation and is a welcome safety and\noperational enhancement for Hillsboro\u2019s aviators and the many student pilots on\ntraining flights from UND Aerospace. A small taxilane was added on the western\nside of the airport to allow for the construction of much-needed new hangar\nfacilities. To help alleviate demand by area pilots for space to store their aircraft\nat Hillsboro, the airport board passionately pursued and successfully completed\nthe construction of two new five-unit hangar buildings along the new taxilane,\nand all units were reserved before construction broke ground. Members of the\nAirport Authority volunteered their time and labor to help complete work on the\nhangars, and even found the time to build a new patio area by the terminal\nbuilding for the enjoyment of the flying community. Finally, the airport is\nmoving forward with the design phase of a major project to rehabilitate their aircraft\nparking apron with construction slated for 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The North Dakota Aeronautics Commission, in partnership with the Airport Association of North Dakota, has announced the winners of the 2021 North Dakota Airport of the Year Awards: 2021 North Dakota Commercial Service Airport of the Year: Grand Forks International Airport 2021 North Dakota General Aviation Airport of the Year: Hillsboro Regional Airport The awards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-north-dakota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21312","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=21312"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21315,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21312\/revisions\/21315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021-Commercial-Airport-Award-GFK-edit.jpg\")
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