Aviation View Magazine | Volume 1, Issue 4

107 AVIATION VIEW VOLUME 1, ISSUE 4 and it makes for this amazing synergy. So that now we have a growing foodie component, and the culture and arts community is growing, and there is a lot of history here… it is all just coming into its own.” Owned and operated by the Port of Walla Walla, the Regional Airport sits on 2,319 acres with a 6,527 by 150 feet runway outfitted with precision ILS systems as well as a taxiway system. A taxiway rehabilitation, grading, and drainage system was all completed in 2018. There is a control tower that is manned 12.5 hours a day, a commercial terminal that has a solar power system built on the roof, and an FBO building. The FBO, Gorge Aviation, operates seven days a week and offers 100LL self-service, Jet-A delivery & self-serve, aircraft maintenance, concierge services, rental cars, and aircraft storage. The airport’s commercial service carrier is Alaska Air, which offers round trip flights to Seattle. This alternates between two and three trips per day. “We had built up a good service with three flights before COVID hit,” explains Skoglund, “At that time we were seeing a load capacity of around 75 percent on all three flights – and even growth that looked to be going beyond that. Then following March of 2020, we ended up with single-digit load factors and even when cutting back to two, and eventually one flight per day, we only saw an overall load factor of 43 percent during 2021. This year we had a fantastic summer and have worked ourselves back up to 85 percent load on two flights per day. In terms of the passenger numbers themselves, in 2019 we had 49,414 enplanements and in 2020 we had 18,668. Through September 2021 we are up to 28,444. Last year our tower reported 34,000 flights and this year we are looking at over 40,000.” Skoglund credits the increase in tourism for most of this increased travel and even general aviation flights. The airport works closely with Visit Walla Walla, which is an active destination WALLA WALLA REGIONAL A I RPORT