Aviation View | April 2021

128 AVIATION VIEW APRIL 2021 R ogue Valley International-Medford Airport recently published a Master Plan to bring them forward to the year 2040. In that plan, there was a median forecast of around two and a half percent commercial and one percent general aviation growth over the next decade. This sounds small at first but consider a worldwide pandemic and a problematic national economy and you can see that the airport is witnessing unprecedented success. Medford, Oregon began life in the late 1800s when the California Oregon Railroad chose this route to connect the states. It began as a lumber town but has developed over the years to include agriculture, tourism, and now its greatest employment is in the medical industry. “Today, Medford is a good size city with a little over 80,000 people,” explains Jason Foster, Air Service & Economic Development Manager, “plus there are 250,000 people within a one-hour drive of the airport and 750,000 people within a 2-hour drive. It is also a fairly remote and isolated location that connects Southern Oregon with Northern California; a four-and-a-half-hour drive to Portland and five and a half to Sacramento. ”If your organization relies on air cargo, and you are located in Northern California or Southern Oregon, then you are relying on Medford Airport to be open for business” says Jerry Brienza, Airport Director. national Medford Airport BUSINESS IS SOARING