Aviation View | Volume 1, Issue 2

163 AVIATION VIEW VOLUME 1, ISSUE 2 FOUR CORNERS REGIONAL A I RPORT everything.” Aside from the geographical uniqueness of this area, it also boasts the City of Farmington, New Mexico. Located in San Juan County, Farmington is the trade centre for the region and although only about 45,000 residents live there, the surrounding area encompasses some 350,000 people. The city is also found at the junction of the San Juan River, the Animas River, and the La Plata River. Surrounded by beautiful desert mesas, just south of the Colorado Mountains this was once ancestral Pueblo territory and traces its roots back to the earliest times of human existence in North America. Now it is surrounded by natural beauty and thriving with arts and culture. Built on the back of the oil and gas industry, San Juan County produces petroleum, natural gas, and coal. Major coal mines are the Navajo and San Juan mines. The coal mined from the Navajo and San Juan mines is used entirely for fuel for the nearby Four Corners Generating Station and San Juan Generating Station to produce electric power. Since 1941, the region has been served by the Four Corners airport. Once known as the Farmington Airport, it became a municipal airport in 1941 and it was only six years until commercial service followed. A variety of airlines flew in and out of the airport over the years, most notably Mesa Airlines which was founded in Farmington before moving on to Phoenix. However, the last commercial flight was in 2017. Since then Four Corners Regional Airport has been strictly General Aviation. “But the term General Aviation encompasses so much more than most people realize,” Lewis emphasizes, “if it’s not military and not commercial airlines, everything else is general aviation! So, it’s private pilots, it’s business aircraft, it’s firefighting crews, it’s air ambulances, it’s freight hauling companies, it’s agricultural