The Seward Airport Authority recently received $365,573 toward the construction of a $2.1 million 10-plane T-hangar.
This is the first installment in a package of federal grants awarded to the airport project totaling more than $1.4 million over a three-year period.
Greg Whisler, who with his wife, Terry, has managed the Seward Airport since 1995, said grants will fund about 90% of the project, with local funds making up the difference.
The new hangar will add 10 T-shaped places for planes to be based at the Seward Airport, adding to the existing hangar space.
Fifty-one planes are now based at Seward Airport, Whisler said. When he and his wife began managing the airport, there were just seven planes based here.
Analysis done several years ago indicated that more than 60% of the planes housed at Seward were owned or operated by people from the Seward County area, but Whisler said that proportion may have changed in recent years.
Airports like Seward’s fit into the national transportation system much like roads or highways, Whisler said, with Seward being a destination or starting point for some people and a stop off for fuel, food or passenger pick-up for others.
“We don’t always know who is going to use it,” Whisler said.
Dirt work for the new hangar began July 15, and crews hope to have the project completed in February.
Seward Airport makes possible 10,000 to 11,000 take-offs and landings, each set known as an “operation,” per year, including private aircraft operators, businesses and military users. Some are large business jets while others are four- to eight-passenger planes.
This grant installment is part of an $18 million award from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration being distributed by the Nebraska Department of Transportation’s Aeronautics Division to 24 Nebraska airports.
Whisler said the FAA awards grants from funds generated by airport fuel taxes and passenger fees managed by the FAA, so airport users are supporting airports.
The Seward airport participates in the National Integrated Program of Air Space, which manages the use of airspace for private operators, NASA, the U.S. military and other U.S. government agencies, making it eligible for such grants.
Nebraska is one of 35 states and the District of Columbia to receive grants totaling $123 million as part of a nationwide initiative to enhance airfield safety and infrastructure and to elevate aviation standards across the country.
This round of Nebraska airport grants ranged from $93,611 to design hangar rehabilitation at Grant Municipal Airport and $4.8 million for Beatrice Municipal Airport’s apron and taxiway reconstruction. Omaha and North Platte each received $3.4 million for terminal projects.
Seward’s 336-acre airport is owned by the city and governed by the elected Airport Authority. It is a BII category airport with one concrete and one turf runway.
