Devils Lake Regional Airport – Devils Lake, North Dakota

January 2, 2025

Devils Lake Regional Airport

Flying Confidently Through 2024

Strategically landing aviation demand and reaching new economic heights.

“I am in my 19th year now at the airport, and I have always had a passion for aviation,” Scott Cruse, Airport Director with Devils Lake Regional Airport, states. These words describe Cruse’s firm commitment to a job well done with an airport that continues to grow and fly confidently into a dynamic future.

Devils Lake Regional Airport is an essential air service (EAS) subsidized, public-use airport owned by the Devils Lake Municipal Airport Authority. Previously referred to as Devils Lake Municipal Airport, it is situated near the beautiful city of Devils Lake in a region of North Dakota known for its natural outdoor potential and surroundings.

This small, dynamic aviation hub continues to welcome a host of general aviation traffic, as well as commercial air service steadily growing in overall passenger numbers. With infrastructure projects in the works and a new terminal to provide its traveling public, Devils Lake Regional Airport has set its sights skyward.

Passenger and growth numbers heading skywards

“We are a small commercial service airport, and we are trying to reach our goal of 10,000 passenger boardings annually, which will improve our Airport Improvement Program funding, and we should see a substantial increase,” Cruse relays.

“We made just over 8,000 boardings in 2023, and over the last 18 of the last 19 months, we have had record passenger boardings, which is very exciting,” he continues. “I don’t know if it’s the terminal, the boarding bridge, or the advertising or what is bringing the folks in, but we have seen quite an increase in our boarding and are so excited about that.”

When translated into growth numbers, Cruse highlights that “right now we are sitting at 78 and a half percent of what we had last year and we were 117.5% over 2022, last year. So, it is hard to say how the year will finish out, but it is looking positive, let’s put it that way,” Cruse asserts.

He goes on to determine that “we are on track to have another record month for boardings which is fantastic.”

As for commercial service, Devils Lake Regional offers two round trips a day to Denver with SkyWest Airlines (through United Airlines) and this represents a total of 13 round trips a week.

“We share the Denver route with Jamestown Airport and between the two airports, many of our flights are to capacity.” Cruse adds.

FBOs and flight training shaping growth

When addressing the airport’s fixed-based operators, Cruse notes that Devils Lake Regional is fortunate to have two hard-working ones; Foss & Meyer and Devils Lake Aero Service.

“Foss & Meyer has fueling services here at the airport and he does a little aerial spraying.” “Devils Lake Aero Service also has fueling services and supplies 100LL av gas and Jet-A, and he is an Airframe and Powerplant mechanic with several people working for him now, as well as a flight instructor who doubles as a mechanic, and when he has time he will go and do flight training.”

When expanding on the flight training capabilities of the airport, Cruse notes that along with the training provided by Devils Lake Aero Service, another flight instructor from up north of the airport will come down to carry out flight training which brings the number of flight instructors to two.

This is welcome news for the airport, Cruse acknowledges, as the need for trained pilots has not lessened of late, and any contribution on a regional level goes a little further to potentially help alleviate these ongoing pilot shortages. Cruse points out that the shortages do not just pertain to trained private or commercial pilots but extend also to the flight maintenance and the A&P side of aviation as well.

Addressing this problem head-on, Cruse draws attention to the efforts the airport has made to host tours of the airport for kids in the area hoping to spark an interest in the world of aviation in some of them.

“We get a lot of grade school tours that come out here. The young kids come here and tour the airport and the staff help to do this.”

Cruse would like to take workforce development initiatives further in time.

“We talked about [reaching out to local schools] and I even have a plan. It is just a matter of time to actually be able to do it,” he says.

A vital gateway to the region

The area surrounding the airport has gained the reputation of being a fabulous location for fishing drawing many GA passengers as well as some celebrities, Cruse notes.

“We work with the Chamber of Commerce here in Devils Lake which is part of the North Dakota Tourism and they are involved in a lot of promotion for our lake, hunting, and fishing opportunities and we work pretty closely with them.”

Cruse relays that “we do see a lot of people coming in here and doing the things around here there is to do and then getting back in their planes and departing.”

“The lake draws a lot of people into the area and we have both summer fishing and ice fishing,” Cruse expands.

Laying the foundations to take flight

Turning to the topic of capital improvement projects at the airport, Curse is quick to point out a few key ones that are in the works, set to break ground, and recently completed.

“Last year we had a couple of hangar projects and one of them is still in the works while one of them has been completed. It is general aviation that we are looking to expand here as we are set for the commercial side right now.”

“We do have some runway and taxiway projects in the near future coming up. We need to do some reconstruction and look at getting some hangars,” he expands.

Of all the upgrades, Cruse is most excited about the opening of the brand-new terminal expansion project in October of this year. This project had been underway for several years and on October 1st the ribbon ceremony marked the terminal being open to the public.

“We started the terminal expansion project in February of 2023 where we doubled the size of our terminal from 6000 to 12,000 square feet.”

“We expanded our passenger holding area from 30 to 65 seats and have added an exit lane, so nobody has to man the exits when people get off the plane.”

“There was also the addition of a mother’s room, more restroom facilities, and we put in a baggage carousel which has been very nice.”

Cruse also points to the increased size of the screening area as part of the expansion project as well as, expanding the size of the lobby and the addition of a more efficient baggage handling facility to “make life a little easier for everybody.”

“Everything is just bigger and better.”

Flying Ahead into 2025

When asked what the future holds for this thriving airport, Cruse is quick to respond.

“The love of the airport [is what motivates me],” he responds.

“We have improved our facilities a lot around here for the size of the town and I am pretty proud of what we have out here, but it is just an airport.”

His commitment to completing the projects in the works and the excitement over the new terminal expansion will likely carry the airport into 2024 with the tailwinds behind them and the knowledge that the passengers passing through will be greeted with all that is needed for a top-tier aviation experience.