Northeast Iowa Regional Airport awarded state funds for hangar addition

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

The Northeast Iowa Regional Airport will receive $700,000 in state funding toward a new 10-plane hangar project at the airport, it was announced this week.

The Iowa Transportation Commission approved a total of $9.3 million for the fiscal year 2024-25 State Aviation Program at its meeting on Tuesday.

Included in that funding is $300,000 toward a new “T-hangar” at the airport east of Charles City, so called because the planes are parked in an alternating pattern of front to tail to make the best use of the available space and to avoid having to move planes around like in common hangars.

Total price of the hangar is listed in the state funding announcement as $540,000, but Bill Kyle, airport manager, said it will likely be higher than that.

“I don’t believe we can build it for $540,000, but there are other sources of funding that can be used,” Kyle said after the North Cedar Airport Authority meeting Wednesday afternoon. The airport authority will also have to come up with the local match portion of the cost.

Other funding sources include the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) funding and other programs, Kyle said.

Funding could also come through Heartland Energy, which makes low interest loans for community projects and which has been used for several Northeast Iowa Regional Airport projects previously, including other hangars.

Along with the hangar funding, the state awarded $400,000 toward constructing a taxilane to connect the new hangar building to the existing airport taxiway and runways. The total cost for that part of the project is listed as $583,870.

Kyle said he hopes both projects can be built next summer.

“The hangar’s no good without the taxiway,” he said.

The taxilane grant will come through the state Airport Improvement Program (AIP) and the hangar grant will come through the state General Aviation Vertical Infrastructure Program.

Hangar space is in demand at the airport, Kyle said, and current hangars are common hangars where a plane owner may have to move other planes out of the way to get their plane in and out. The T-hangar will have a separate door for each of the 10 planes.

The AIP will fund $6.3 million for a variety of aviation safety initiatives, system planning and air service development activities in the state, the Iowa Transportation Commission announced this week. It will also provide funding for airport development projects at 23 airports in Iowa.

The AIP program is funded through the State Aviation Fund using revenues from aircraft registration fees and aviation fuel taxes.

Aviation vertical infrastructure programs will provide $3 million for projects at six general aviation airports and eight commercial service airports throughout Iowa. These programs provide funding for the maintenance and development of airport facilities such as terminal buildings, maintenance facilities and aviation hangars.

Vertical infrastructure programs are funded from Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund appropriations.

Iowa DOT Aviation Program Manager Shane Wright said the fiscal year 2025 program has many good projects that help the state’s aviation system support the economy.

“It builds a strong aviation system while leveraging federal, local and private investment,” Wright said.