Aviation View - June 2024

the alfalfa and wheat industries, it quickly became synonymous with college sports, especially football, when fans traveled to watch Washington State face California in the ’32 National Championship. Nowadays, college charters filled with basketball clubs and football teams make up a chunk of the air traffic, but that’s not all. PUW is a full-service airport and fixed-base operator, now boasting a shiny new runway that has taken the airfield to new heights. And for Tony Bean, Executive Director at Pullman-Moscow, the hustle and bustle is about more than economic growth or flashy new infrastructure; his job entails much more. For example, PUW’s new runway project ensured the local and international supply chain remained connected to the Pullman-Moscow area. “We do not have an interstate. We do not have a waterway. We do not have a railway. But everything that is produced in the Palouse [region] is global,” Bean says, highlighting the area’s key economic dilemma and where the airport fits into the solution. The team at Pullman-Moscow Airport has already made everyone’s lives better with a few gargantuan upgrades, and some massive plans are in the works for the near future, too. RECORD GROWTH PUW’s brand-new runway has opened up a wealth of opportunities, but its inception was a bit complicated. As Bean explains, the original runway was set up for 19-seat aircrafts, not the much larger plans that are common today. As this strip got older, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) encouraged the airport to kickstart an upgrade. Without the upgrades, PUW would lose its funding, meaning some serious consequences for the surrounding communities. For example, Whitman County is the largest wheat-producing county in the United States. Losing Pullman-Moscow would mean a massive detriment to that industry, as well as the greater global economy that relied on wheat exported from Washington. As PUW sized up a complete overhaul of the terminal 123 AVIATION VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 04, ISSUE 02 PULLMAN-MOSCOW REGIONAL AIRPORT