Aviation View | April 2021

80 AVIATION VIEW APRIL 2021 The project also included crack and fog sealing the asphalt runway, installation of state-of-the- art LED runway edge lights, and replacement of electrical systems. There was a planned six- week timeline for the project, with the airport’s primary runway completely shut down for about six days in that period. Peterson recalls, “That runway was shut down, but looking back at about eight months to a year ago, when we were starting to plan this, we told the airlines, ‘hey, you can’t fly in because the crossing runway is just too short for your operations. We’re going to have to cancel all these flights.’ So in six days, we were anticipating four flights a day that we were going to cancel, where when the pandemic hit, a lot of the airlines back in March and April and May retracted their airline schedules and decreased their service. Ultimately, we went back to one to two flights a day. So, in reality, we took advantage of that downturn from the pandemic to monopolize on our capital improvement projects and we inconvenienced less passengers.” their smartphone or paper boarding pass to a customer service agent. Inside the planes, airlines have implemented various means of sanitization, to include but not limited to electrostatic sanitizing systems, disinfecting arm rests, seats, and other high-touch surfaces. But airport management is looking far beyond the pandemic to ensure continued viability for years to come. And for Yakima Air Terminal- McAllister Field that means both maintenance and economic development. “As you may know, many airports throughout the U.S. were World War II airports that were either sold or gifted to local government entities to manage,” Peterson explains. “And we are one of them; we’re an old World War II training facility. With that said, there’s a lot of aging infrastructure that we need to continue to take into consideration.” The pandemic provided an opportunity for the airport to complete capital projects with minimal disruption. One of those was a $1.5 million rehabilitation project for Runway 9/27.