Business View Magazine | December 2020

251 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE DECEMBER 2020 COEUR D ’ ALENE A I RPORT “PAPPY BOY INGTON F I ELD” of our small 60 X 80 size hangars. As it sits today, we have about 130 leaseholds.” Kjegaard muses that while the Covid pandemic did affect the airport drastically in the early parts of the new year, it really picked up after that. “Most of our traffic is handled between May and September anyway, and we set records in terms of fuel sales and service of aircraft operations. It was just an extremely busy summer which was very interesting and very heartening to see. I have a feeling that was primarily due to people still wanting to get out and go on vacation. You can get lost here in Idaho and there certainly is room to get far away from each other.” There are also two non-aeronautical businesses on the field. One is a composite parts manufacturer, and another is a facility that makes surge protectors. The Airport is beginning the process of developing an additional property that is not tied to the aeronautical sector. It is also working with the city to develop an 80- is quite different and we cater to the small general aviation fleet and the corporate aircraft, as well as the Forest Service tanker aircraft.” The airport began life as a fighter and light bomber training base for the Army Air Corps in 1942. It was only the second Delta configuration air base ever built – an interesting design where the runways create a triangle, thus centralizing the facility. Although the Airport still maintains a similar configuration, it has grown and changed continually over the years to become a large and busy general aviation airport. Today, Coeur d’Alene is home to 225 aircraft and has a waiting list for hangars. “The airport continues to grow and be busier,” says Kjegaard, “and we are actually running out of space for small scale hangar development. We do have additional space and land that we can develop, it is just that, as with any airport project involving federal money, it takes a while to start planning. We went from having about 20 plus hangar spots vacant a year ago, down to one left