By BECKY KISER
Hays Post
Hays Regional Airport recently received a third $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help with expenses related to COVID-19.
The announcement was made March 12 by U.S. Senator Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, a former Hays resident.
Hays is among 23 Kansas airports sharing in the $8.9 million made available by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as part of the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act.
Moran met with airport employees, general aviation pilots, and city officials at the Hays airport Tuesday afternoon to find out what impact the federal dollars have made.
In 2019, the airport had its best year ever for commercial enplanements - a little more than 15,000 passengers- according to Toby Dougherty, city manager.
By exceeding 10,000 passengers in one year, Hays is guaranteed $1 million from the FAA in entitlement money. The city provides a matching 10 percent and the funds are used for airport capital improvement projects.
Then, with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, there were only 5,400 boardings last year. During the entire month of April, there were only 29 people flying out of Hays. For awhile there was only one SkyWest/United flight per day instead of the usual two flights to Denver International Airport.
"We are worried that in future years if it takes awhile for passenger travel to come back and we stay below that 10,000 boardings, the FAA may not use that last normalized year. So we could be looking at funding those capital projects with other sources," Dougherty said.
The FAA entitlement money typically arrives two years after a 10,000 annual passenger boardings is met, according to Salter.
"That's probably what's the most critical for us. ... They have said there is talk that they're going to maintain whatever status you were in 2019 for 2020 and that will be your 2021 entitlement. But I haven't received [any notice of that."]
"We're in the early stages of planning for a $5 million taxiway rebuild project," added Dougherty. "A million dollars is really important to us. ... Us coming up with 10 percent of that is a lot of money but having the ability over the years to get the million dollars to help pay for that is big."
The aviation industry is slowing returning to normal.
"At the end of February, we were running at about 40 percent of normal passenger load, and I think it's trending up a little bit," Dougherty said. "Nationwide, it's about 50 percent. We're lagging a little bit."
Revenues at the airport are down.
Passenger Facilitation Charges (PFC) of $4.50 per ticket that help pay for capital improvements are down 50 percent. Landing fees are down 30 percent and fuel sales are down 20 percent.
"One of the things that we need to do when COVID is, in a sense, behind us," Moran commented, "we need to make sure the formula that allows you to have your entitlement fund takes into account the reduced passenger boardings during COVID.
Dougherty and Jamie Salter, airport director, agreed. "Absolutely," Salter said.
As small as the Hays airport is, with just four full-time and two part-time employees, it is a class Part 139 certified airport and must follow the same FAA rules and regulations as the huge Denver airport, Salter explained.
For the past year that has included mandatory face masks for everyone in the terminal and additional cleaning and disinfection put into place by SkyWest and TSA (Transportation Security Administration). Those measures are continuing in 2021.
Two offices directly across from the SkyWest passenger check-in area were previously open to the public. Using federal COVID relief dollars, they've been remodeled for as private offices for airport staff.
"We can't just close our doors," Salter said, "according to our grant assurances. We cross-trained our staff in case someone was quarantined or actually sick so we could still meet our safety requirements out on the airfield."
The first $1 million Phase III federal CARES grant made in April 2020 will be used to fully pay for two longstanding capital improvement projects.
Rehabilitation of the north terminal apron, correction of drainage issues, and upgraded lighting for crosswind runway 4-22 will be done at no cost to the city beginning later this spring.
Usually, the city must come up with a 10 percent match for such projects while the FAA foots 90 percent of the bill.
Salter estimated the city is saving $180,000 to $200,000 by not having to pay the usual 10 percent cost share to the FAA for the two airport projects.
New runway markings have been laid down on the primary runway 16-34 and taxiway connector M1.
Maintenance projects, such as the runway restriping, are normally not eligible for the FAA cost/share program, saving the city another $400,000.
Relief funding has also been used to rehabilitate an asphalt access road on the east side of the parking lot which is heavily utilized by fuel trucks coming in to refill the fuel farm. A new snow plow was also purchased.
"Those are huge costs, and we truly would have struggled to find the money," Salter told Moran.
The second $1,008,174 grant, announced in February, will be used for airport operational expenses, according to Salter, including salaries, utility bills, and the additional cleaning costs related to COVID-19. It cannot be used for development projects unless they are specifically COVID-related.
"To me, this is the important issue," Moran said. "You've received these two grants and the flexibility that's in the first one is really good, I would think.
"I'm worried that you would not have enough COVID costs to utilize the amount of money that you've received, and yet you have other needs at the airport that I assume you wish you could use that money on to pay for."
Salter agreed.
"We are being very strategic in how we use that," she said.
"Our plan is to offset operating expenditures with the CARES money from both grants. That then allows us to pad our reserves," Dougherty interjected.
"If this was your personal savings, you'd be ashamed at the amount of money we have in the bank out here."
"You're playing by the rules," Moran said, "but you're being strategic in the way you're saving your dollars for the future."
Salter said the city has four years to use the $2 million from the two federal COVID grans.
It's not yet known what the third million dollar federal grant can be used for, according to Moran.
The general aviation industry will also benefit from the upcoming capital improvement projects.
Salter said the Hays airport averages 34,000 airplane touch downs a year. Only 1,400 of those are by the SkyWest commercial jets. The overwhelming majority are general aviation flights, both for pleasure and for business.
Alan Moore is a private pilot and construction manager for APAC-Kansas. He is also a member of the board of directors for HaysMed, part of the University of Kansas Health System based in Lawrence.
"We have flights of physicians and administration people coming out to work with us in Hays.
"We have [medical] specialists that fly in and out of here. Those are general aviation, not commercial flights," Moore pointed out.
"And then, our team of doctors, throughout our critical access hospital network, are now flying to Liberal, to Colby, to do those procedures."
Some physicians charter flights with Crotts Aircraft Service, the airport FBO (Fixed Base Operator).
"General aviation really appreciates the facility we have," Moore told Moran. "I tell everybody we in Hays don't appreciate what a great facility we have until we go somewhere else and realize what their facilities are lacking."
“When you look at western Kansas, as we do all the time, "Moran said, "if you want something to continue to improve, make sure we don’t lose the airport and the commercial as well as the general aviation service that allows a business to stay when they have to be elsewhere all the time."
The Hays airport carries no debt.
Hays just entered into another three-year EAS (Essential Air Service) contract with SkyWest, a subsidy funded by the federal transportation department.
Other area airports awarded the most recent CRRSA federal grant money include:
* $9,000--Cheyenne County Municipal Airport
* $23,000--Great Bend Municipal Airport
* $1,005,013--Hays Regional Airport
* $9,000--Rooks County Regional Airport, Stockton
* $13,000--Shalz Field, Colby