Business View Magazine | December 2019

188 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2019 Within 50 miles, we’ve stopped all the leakage. The majority of our leakage is to Minneapolis, about a three-hour drive from Des Moines, and certainly, our market areas abut up against each other and, in fact, overlap. The other two airports we’re in competition with are Omaha and Kansas City. Kansas City is about a three-hour drive away; Omaha is about a two-and-a-half hour drive away.” The Des Moines Airport is also home to the 132nd Wing of the Iowa Air National Guard, and both FedEx and UPS transport cargo in and out of Des Moines International. Approximately 115 general aviation aircraft – private and corporate – are home-based there, as well. “We used to have a waiting list for hangar space, but we constructed new hangars in 2018,” Foley notes. “So, today, we have three hangars available for rent. They are T-hangars with a couple of box hangars on the end for small corporate aircraft. As we get ready for the new terminal we’re trying to build, we needed to move some buildings, so we built new hangars in one location, tore down some buildings in another location, and we built some extra at the same time.” Regarding other ongoing projects, Foley adds, “I had a boss who once told me that a well-managed airport will always be under construction. We are in the process of wrapping up a complete reconstruction of our primary runway. We took it all the way down to the base and brought it back up. We have an Airport Improvement grant for Phase 1 of reconstruction of the crosswind runway, and that will begin in the spring. But, we’ve been working on pavement, be it our primary parallel taxiway, or the runways, since 2010.” “At the same time, we are rearranging our Airport on the south side,” he continues. “Originally, it was basically cargo and some light GA facilities down there. We have split the cargo ramp that was put in around 2000; it’s 26 acres of very Video Surveillance | Facial Recognition Parking Access Revenue Control | Parking Guidance Building Automation | Systems Integration Des Moines | Cedar Rapids | Quad Cities | 855.262.5000 www.thebakergroup.com AIRPORT INNOVATION SUPPORTING INNOVATIVE CLIENTSWITH LEADING-EDGE DESIGN, C NSTRUCTIONAND FACILITY OPERATIONS.