Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport

Charting an Even Course

With the right priorities, this airport is facing a turbulent-free year ahead.

Just a short drive from the city of Liberal sits a little airport with the capacity for good things ahead. This is a direct result of the hard work put in every day to do what is needed to ensure that the airport operations continuously run at a high caliber and that the passengers that come through this little airport feel not only welcome but will remember their airport experience as a pleasant and efficient one.

Making this all happen, Airport manager Brian Fornwalt is as committed to his job running the dynamic airport as the passengers are to enjoying everything the airport has to offer.

“We have commercial service to Denver with Sky West Regional, coming through United Airlines and we also have GA and we have local traffic as well,” Fornwalt describes, when asked to outline the operational capacity of his airport.

“We get flights in from everywhere, so it is anybody that comes in and out all the time,” he adds.

“We also cater to medevac flights and UPS lands every once in a while.”

Another key aviation component is the frequency of corporate flights that land at Liberal Mid America Regional Airport that are traveling through the area. The region surrounding the airport is home to larger-sized industrial companies who use the airport when conducting business in the area.

With the mix of aviation traffic utilizing the airport, it is no wonder that Fornwalt is hard at work ensuring that key projects are given priority and that safety measures are up to date. Efficiency is paramount, and as Fornwalt notes, all of this needs to fall under the budget allocated to the airport.

“Our numbers this year have increased. The flights have stayed the same, but our numbers flying out have increased this year,” Fornwalt determines. “Percentage-wise I would say we are maybe up 10% over last year.”

Training talent for the future workforce challenges

Top of the mind for Fornwalt, as is the case with many of his cohorts around the country, is the need to take the steps to engage youth in the prospect of aviation as a future career pursuit.

With an ongoing pilot shortage and an equal need for flight engineers, A&P professionals, and maintenance crew, Fornwalt plays his part in helping steer things in the right direction.

“I know that there is a flight training program at Spartan in Tulsa and if anyone asks I try to send them there and another north of us,” he states. “ However, we don’t see a lot of interest. It is hard right now to get people to be really interested in flying.”

“The air museum does have a lot of kids that come out here for school tours and they do try to talk directly with kids about getting them interested in it [aviation].”

The workforce development conversation is still ongoing for Fornwalt against a backdrop of continued labor shortages in the aviation industry. A problem that is felt at the regional and national as well as international level.

Upgrades taking off

Turning to the key area of infrastructure upgrading for the airport, Fornwalt draws attention to several projects in various stages of completion. Projects that speak to safety, efficiency, and modernization where it is needed throughout the airport operations.

“Right now we are still working on the new terminal and the parking lot expansion,” he begins.

“Right now we are in a 6000 square-foot building and I think we are going to go up to a 16,000 square-foot building.” “It will have more space in the secure area which will be a lot better and we will have a lot better checkpoint for the TSA.”

Fornwalt also notes that the expansion will also provide more square footage for his office capacity and will also provide more room for the Sky West personnel and those in the TSA.

“Everybody will not be cramped in their offices,” Fornwalt describes.

“Parking will be a lot better too,” he expands.

“All of this is still a work in progress but we are getting there,” he summarizes.

“The parallel taxiway is another project that is getting ready to start. We are in the design process of it right now and it is for our crosswind runway. So we will see how that goes.”

Working on the design of the project on the engineering end is HW Lochner. Together with the airport’s input phase one is moving forward.

“We are getting ready to do surveys on it, and then geo tech is getting ready to come out this week and start doing dirt samples and then coring of the old concrete runways to see where they need to tear out, and where exactly the new taxiway is going to go,” Fornwalt elaborates.

With reference to safety upgrades, Fornwalt draws attention to the airport’s recently completed LED lighting project.

“We were actually done before the date that they were supposed to be done, so that went well and everyone likes the new lights- it is helping pilots with visibility which can be a real safety concern.”

Economic potential airside

The Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport is in the rare and fortunate position to be selling a considerable amount of vacant land. This potential for business growth around and on the airport grounds is a key focus and potential game changer of the airport, Fornwalt acknowledges.

“We are looking at any type right up next to the airfield. We are not selling that unless, however, it would be beneficial for the airport.”

“So, we are just trying to see [how things go]. We don’t have interest yet for that [land right up next to the airfield], but if anybody wants to buy land that is vacant elsewhere we are trying to sell that so we can get rid of some of this vacant land.”

The airport works with its economic partners including Seward County Development, for economic development linking the airport.

“We did have a groundbreaking for a new company recently that is geared towards the sustainable fuel for aircraft and they will be out on the northeast side of town,” Fornwalt relays.

In terms of catering to potential business aviation, projecting ahead, Fornwalt adds that he is looking into the potential of having a delivery site for UPS or FedEx. This type of facility would also speak to the airport’s capacity for economic development.

“We hope we will be able to land their planes [UPS or FEDEX] and then just go right up to the building.”

Although only at the conversational level, it is clear that the airport has the land available and the desire to ramp up commercial/business activity on the airport grounds.

Looking down the future runway

When asked what the next little while holds for the airport, Fornwalt is quick to answer.

“Hopefully we can start in fiscal year 2026, which would be October of next year (FAA fiscal year 2026) construction of the new terminal. So hopefully it will then be completely down with both the parking lot and terminal within two or three years.”

Add to the mix the work on the parallel taxiway, and the airport has its work cut out ahead of them. Based on the work that Fornwalt willingly puts in daily, it can be assumed that it will be a turbulent-free time ahead for a little airport with big plans.

AT A GLANCE

Liberal Mid-America Regional Airport

What: A forward-thinking regional airport with plans for terminal expansion and safety measures

Where: Liberal, Kansas

Website: https://www.cityofliberal.org/202/Liberal-Airport