Page Municipal Airport

8 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 9, ISSUE 4 flights over the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell areas. The 536-acre property has two runways: 15-33 at 5,950 feet in length; and crosswind runway 07-25 at 2,200 feet. The Airport is served by three FBOs: American Aviation, Classic Aviation, and Lake Powell Jet Center. They offer fuel line services and have several mechanics, charter services, and even occasionally do flight training. Charter service and air tours of the Grand Circle are provided by American Aviation, Grand Canyon Airlines, and Westwind Aviation. “We have 88 based aircraft at the airport,” says Christiansen, “most are turboprop, but we have a few helicopters based here, as well. We see corporate G650s coming in during the summer and we have even landed an Airbus. We do not own any hangars outright, but several private owners build on a land-lease agreement. As the area is growing people are asking me every week if there is hangar space available, but to be honest, any that does come available is snatched right up. A gentleman recently built five new hangars and they were sold out as quickly as they were built.” The airport’s 10,000 square foot main terminal houses the commercial service operator, Contour Airlines, along with the TSA screening facility and Avis Car Rental. One of the FBOs, American Aviation also works out of the terminal and has a maintenance hangar next door. Christiansen adds, “We also house Grand Canyon Airlines, which offers fixed wings tours and Papillion Helicopter Tours. The airport only has three full- time staff, but we provide seven days a week coverage.” Another interesting tenant on the airfield is Monumental Weddings. They are a wedding photographer and venue planner and will take groups out to incredibly scenic places, on top of Tower Butte or a remote Mesa. They set everything up, fly the wedding party in, and they also have approval from the Navajo Nation to operate in Horseshoe Bend. There is a also a realtor, Majestic Homes, that enjoys operating PAGE MUNI C I PAL A I RPORT from the airport, as well. Infrastructure projects are always top of mind at Page Municipal. “We have been working on improving the infrastructure slowly over the last few years,” says Christiansen, “and have just recently completed a $2.5 million apron reconstruction of the main apron. It was a strengthening project and we reconstructed nearly the entire north apron and the commercial apron to allow for heavier aircraft. In the last few years, we have updated our Taxiway Charlie, which is our partial taxiway to our crosswind runway, and currently we’re in the process of preparing grant applications for some runway safety improvements, lengthening and strengthening it as well, to allow more types of aircraft to use this airport.” Martinez and Christiansen go on to describe how