ON THE RISE AGAIN
Passenger traffic is picking up at Santa Fe airport after collapsing with the onset of the pandemic, and federal money is coming in for upgrades
Passenger traffic at the city-owned Santa Fe Regional Airport is steadily picking up since the economic shutdown from the novel coronavirus pandemic thrust the commercial aviation industry into a tailspin. It’s not the only good news for the airport in southwest Santa Fe: On Monday, New Mexico’s congressional delegation announced the airport was among 10 in New Mexico to receive a combined $13.6 million in Federal Aviation Administration grants for infrastructure improvements and redevelopment.
“This funding will support New Mexico communities in accessing the resources and goods they need,” Democratic U.S. Sen. Tom Udall said in a statement. “This funding also lays a foundation to make sure that our airports will continue to grow local economies across New Mexico when this national crisis has passed.”
The FAA funds for all 10 airports are either from Department of Transportation grants for infrastructure improvements or from the CARES Act passed in March, or a combination of both, according to a news release.
The Albuquerque International Sunport received the biggest share with $2.3 million from Department of Transportation infrastructure improvement grants for taxiway rehabilitation, as well as nearly $1.1 million from CARES Act relief grants.
The $1.875 million in funding for Santa Fe’s airport is strictly from the Department of Transportation.
Airport manager Mark Baca said the money will be used for the design and reconstruction of a decades-old taxiway that’s 50 feet wide and 3,200 feet long.
“It’s starting to crack and break up,” he said. “This taxiway, other than just crack sealing or seal coating, [still has] the original pavement from 1967. We’ve tried to take care of it as best we could, but time caught up. We got our money’s worth out of it — that’s for sure.”
The taxiway rehabilitation grant comes on the heels of a nearly $1.9 million CARES Act grant the airport received for operational costs.
“When they did the CARES Act, I jumped on the computer right away to see if there were any monies that we’d be eligible for,” Baca said, adding the city is reimbursed for “normal operations,” from salaries to diesel fuel, under the CARES Act grant.
“As I spend money out of the city’s coffers, I’m able to go in there and just recoup the money,” he said.
Baca said revenues have declined as a result of the pandemic, but he didn’t know to what extent. He said the city is in the process of generating monthly reports
that will shed light on the airport’s finances.
“As with anything,” he said, “you just never know how much until the end.”
But Baca said commercial air traffic has been growing since April.
American Airlines, which before the pandemic had six flights a day, is now back up to three, he said.
“They were down to one flight a day, basically, back in April,” he said, adding the airline had only 179 passengers fly in or out of Santa Fe that month.
“We’ve been slowly growing,” Baca said. The month of “May went up to almost 1,000. June went up to 2,200. In July, we were at 2,400. We haven’t received August numbers yet, but you can see that steady climb for passengers.”
United Airlines, which had three flights a day, is down to one. But the airline has been checking in more passengers in recent months, Baca said.
“They were averaging 3,000 enplanements [passengers boarding] prior to this,” he said. “They dropped all the way down to 167 in April.”
The number fell to 39 in May and 30 in June, Baca said.
“But now in July, they’ve bumped up to 824, so they’re slowly climbing as well,” he said.
While commercial flights took a beating, Baca said air traffic from private jets fared better.
“They only saw a 20 percent decrease in traffic,” he said. “All the private folks are still flying in and out of here.”
Private flights likely saved businesses at the airport, including mechanic shops and two fixed-base operators that sell fuel, he said.
“They were affected, but they weren’t affected too terrible,” he said. “Hey, we’re at least able to keep their doors open and keep folks employed.”
Baca remains hopeful for the future. But at the height of the pandemic, the daily average passenger count dropped to as low as five to 10.
The airport and its small terminal, which used to be crowded before the pandemic hit, turned into “a virtual ghost town,” Baca said.
Baca recalled walking through the terminal one day when a man was the lone passenger on an American Airlines flight to Dallas.
“He says, ‘Man, now I know how the elite fly. I’m the only one here,’ ” Baca said. “He had his choice of seats. I mean, there were more crew members than there were passengers.”