They last visited the airport three months ago, and were happy to see how much it's changed.
“You used to have to stand out there,” Gibbons said, nodding toward the hallway where security officers were screening outbound passengers.
It's been a busy year for the airport, which has undertaken no fewer than eight remodeling projects as part of the Missoula County Airport Authority's multimillion-dollar capital improvement program, said airport director Cris Jensen.
The biggest of these projects - officially known as the “security relocation project” because it will be used as a passenger screening area - will expand the terminal's current size of 102,000 square feet by another 18,000 square feet. When the $4.3 million expansion is completed, hopefully before March, it will radically change the flow of foot traffic through the six-gate airport, Jensen said.
Currently, there's a bottleneck at the passenger screening area because passengers leaving Missoula have to pass through the same area as those arriving - the same place friends and family gather to greet and wave goodbye to their loved ones.
“We're trying to improve that flow,” Jensen said as he walked over the addition's heated sidewalks and into its light-filled interior, where workers from Gordon Construction were putting the finishing touches on windows and skylights.
The expansion will also change the look of the building's exterior, Jensen said. The architecture is meant to evoke the University of Montana's clock tower, and has even been dubbed the “Great Hall.”
It is Jensen's hope that one day this addition, which now anchors the western side of the airport, will become the airport's center when another wing of terminals is added.
But for now, the airport has its hands full finishing up a host of improvement projects and starting a few more. It has already completed a $1.2 million project to reconstruct the general aviation ramp east of Minuteman Aviation's maintenance facility and added a welding bay in the airport's maintenance shop. It purchased two new passenger loading bridges to replace two others that were more than 30 years old, and two new explosive detection systems.
“The benefit to the airport is, this is a much more efficient system,” Jensen said.
It also expanded and modernized the restrooms on the second floor. A new airport rescue/firefighting satellite building is nearly complete, and the airport is still midway through relocating its localizer antennae, part of the instrument landing system, to bring the system up to current standards.
And that was just for fiscal year 2006.
Projects are planned out well in advance, Jensen said, but timing couldn't be better because the airport is handling increased traffic.
“We're the only airport in the state of Montana seeing positive passenger growth,” he said.
Every other airport in Montana, except Billings, has seen a decline in passengers over the last year. Billings' rate was relatively flat, at 0.6 percent, while Missoula saw an increase of 3.1 percent. Bozeman, in contrast, fell by 5.5 percent. However, Missoula's airport still comes in third in terms of sheer passenger numbers; it hosts about 530,000 passengers a year to Billings' 795,000 and Bozeman's 673,000.
Part of the credit for Missoula's positive passenger growth is its new fog-seeding program, Jensen said. The airport purchased two machines that help clear fog over the runways, allowing many flights to get through that otherwise would have been canceled. In the four days surrounding Thanksgiving this year, the airport canceled only two flights. The year before, it lost 49 flights, Jensen said.
Missoula's airport has also been largely successful at bringing in new flights and expanding service, he said. The state lost a number of flights in 2005, and not every airport has managed to replace them.
Missoula International Airport, however, has added daily service to Portland, Ore., and seasonal service to Chicago, as well as expanded service to Salt Lake City, Denver and Las Vegas.
It's now preparing to bid for another nonstop flight to Denver through Frontier Airlines, which is accepting proposals from small- and medium-sized communities across the nation.
Meanwhile, the airport will continue to push the other projects listed on its six-year plan. The budget for fiscal year 2007 calls for an additional $15 million worth of improvements. Most of that cost is due to the $9 million control tower. The airport hasn't yet secured all the necessary funding for that project, Jensen said.
Meanwhile, it will forge ahead with plans to resurface the runway and, hopefully before the end of the summer, give Liquid Planet a formal space in the second story. The business is making do with a cart and temporary appliances.
The airport will keep the public updated on the progress of construction through its new Web site, www.flymissoula.com, Jensen said. The site provides a lot of information about the airport, including a flight tracker and links to more news.
“This has been one of the biggest success stories for us,” Jensen said.
The Web site actually began in October 2005 as a hobby for Chris Hart, an employee at Minuteman Aviation. He was contacted by the Airport Authority when they began looking to update their decades-old site. The software was provided by Missoula-based Pyron Technologies.
“I already had most of the information on the old site,” Hart said. “It was just a matter of transferring it to the new one. But we added things, too. We have a live Web cam and people can listen to radio communications.”
Hart “pilots” the site as a side project, updating information and fixing glitches as needed.
“They took a chance on me,” he said. “I'd never done a Web site before in my life.”
Jensen said the response to the Web site has been astounding and he couldn't be happier with Hart's work. Other airports are calling in to ask how they can improve their sites, too, and the site is fielding hundreds upon hundreds of visitors a day.
In fact, Hart said, over the busy Thanksgiving weekend, the site was getting 10,000 hits a day.
“We were absolutely stunned at how many people were visiting,” he said.
The number of visitors has gone up again recently, likely because of weather troubles at Denver International Airport, Jensen said. On Friday, the site posted a travel advisory for the Denver airport, which has been grappling with flight-canceling snowstorms, followed by information about how to check the status of Denver flights from Missoula - just the sort of information Yvonne McQuilkin would be interested in.
McQuilkin, who visits Missoula three or four times a year, was wrapping up a visit with her son and his family, preparing to head back to Cambridge, Mass. But first, she had to pass through Denver. Last she heard, her flight was still on schedule.
“I think the changes are great,” she said as she waited for her flight. “But I hope the airport doesn't get too big. I like the smallness.”
Reporter Tyler Christensen can be reached at 523-5215 or tyler.christensen@lee.net
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