Business View Magazine | January 2020

143 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 live within 90 minutes of the Four Corners Regional Airport and most of the traffic now drives to and from Albuquerque (3 hours away) to get on a flight,” Lewis relates. “So, we’ve been working with Skywest Airlines to inaugurate regional jet service out of Farmington, and so far, the schedule looks like we’ll be starting that service sometime in mid-2020.” In order to get the Airport ready, the City of Farmington, which owns Four Corners Regional Airport, received a $3.45 million grant from the FAA to extend the safety areas on either end of the runway. In addition to the extension, the airfield will be repainted and will receive fog sealing to extend the life of the runway. “It will step up the runway reference code from a B-II category to a C-II,” says Lewis. “That will allow Skywest to be able to operate regional jets into the Airport. Flights will be going to Denver. We analyzed all of the possible hubs in the area, and Denver offered the greatest number of connections. It will be a United Express operated product, and Denver is a big hub for United.” In addition, the Airport received an $850,000 Small Community Air Service Development Grant from the FAA, which will help pay for marketing and assist with the return of air service to Four Corners Regional Airport. “It looks like we are going to have to expand the boarding area to accommodate a 50-passenger jet, and have engaged an airport terminal architect to take a look at what options we have for making that happen,” Lewis remarks. “I also have recently spoken to TSA to give them a heads up that we’re very strongly anticipating air service to start in mid-2020. They’re waiting for a definite letter of intent from Skywest Airlines and we’re in the process of trying to secure that letter. That will kick the ball off for them to be able to expend resources in bringing the Airport back up to the TSA standard. Some of the security equipment has been moved out, but a lot of the other facilities are still in place. It shouldn’t be a real big deal to have them reoccupy the office space that they had, and so FOUR CORNERS REGIONAL A I RPORT