Business View Magazine | January 2020

157 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE JANUARY 2020 Alaska Central Express (ACE Air Cargo) and Ameriflight. Charter airlines accessing Ketchikan include: Family Air Tours, Misty Fjords Air, Pacific Airways, SeaWind Aviation, Southeast Aviation, and Taquan Air. Ketchikan International Airport is run by the Ketchikan Gateway Borough, which signed a long-term lease with the State of Alaska in 1985 that goes through 2027. This agreement allows for operation of the Airport, with the state acting as a sponsor to the Borough and as a financial partner in major maintenance projects. A staff of 28 Borough employees operate the facility. This past year, the Airport had 18,250 aircraft operations: 61 percent air taxi, 33 percent scheduled commercial, 2 percent transient general aviation, 2 percent local general aviation, and 1 percent military. The attempt to replace the Airport’s ferry system with a bridge became the object of national attention in 2005, when the proposed structure, budgeted for almost $400 million, was described as “the bridge to nowhere” by its opponents. “The costs just kept escalating and the governor finally said, we’re not building it,” says Carney. “Out of that bridge money, there’s $96 million dollars left, and it’s now in the hands of the state DOT, and they’re using that money to refurbish the ferry berths, build new berths, build adequate parking and waiting areas on the town side, and refurbish sidewalks, generator systems, boat docks, and things of that nature.” “We’re at the end of the design phase and will soon put those projects out to bid,” Carney continues. “So, for the next four years, there will be $96 million spent on those capital projects. We are about three months into a year-long effort with an airport planning group, Mead & Hunt, to do an Airport Master Plan for upgrades to our terminal, for what we’re going to need for the growth of our Airport over the next 20 years. I picture that it will be funded out of our PFCs (Passenger Facility Charges). We’ll probably go out and bond once we get approval from KETCHI KAN INTERNAT IONAL A I RPORT