Aviation View - Oct 2023

29 AVIATION VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 3, ISSUE 3 BI LL INGS LOGAN INTERNAT IONAL AI RPORT largest community in a 500-mile radius. We are about 500 miles from Denver and other large communities. As the largest community, we also serve as the business hub for a very large agricultural area, a very important petroleum development area, a regional medical hub, as well as essential services for more than half the state of Montana and the surrounding region.” It’s an area of much economic activity. Roach cites nearby oil refineries owned by Phillips 66 and Exxon-Mobil. St. Vincent’s Hospital, Billings Clinic are major employers, Rocky Vista University, a new medical school, and Montana State University at Billings are local economic drivers. “We serve a strong economic area here from the airport,” says Roach. “The airport itself only has about 50 employees, but we have more than 2,000 employees that work out of, or are part of the airport.” He notes Billings makes up about 17 percent of Montana’s population, but 22 percent of the state’s gross domestic product (or GDP). Another factor is that Billings has a very