Community airports provide valuable service

WORLAND — The Big Horn Basin is home to six different airports with only one having scheduled airline service.

According to Rick Patton of GDA Engineering, Cody is the only scheduled airline service in the Big Horn Basin. Worland lost its scheduled airline service when it lost the essential air service that had been provided by Great Lakes. The essential air service was terminated Sept. 30, 2016.

Patton said all the other airports are general aviation, with the South Big Horn County Airport designated a business airport.

Patton said Cody also handles general aviation but is the only one with scheduled airline service. He said for airports, the term is scheduled airline service rather than commercial because “you can fly in to any of the airports on a charter [commercial business].”

Cody is owned by the City of Cody and Park County.

Patton said for the other airports, Hot Springs County, North Big Horn County and South Big Horn County airports, are all owned and operated by their respective county governments.

Hot Springs County, NBH and SBH – those three airports are managed by the county.

Powell and Worland airports are owned and operated by their respective municipalities.

Hot Springs County Airport is one of newest in the country, state and region. “It’s pretty rare we end up with new airports any more. In Hot Springs County’s case it wasn’t a brand new airport it was a replacement airport,” Patton said.

“They had one that did not meet safety standards. There was no way to ever make that airport meet safety standards. That’s why the state and the FAA supported moving the airport to get it to a site that could meet all the safety requirements,” he added.

Patton said all of the airports are designed for a B-II or King Air, basically a 10-passenger aircraft. All are able to accept and see usage from hospital, military, light business and recreation, state and federal agencies.

Each of the communities have hospitals close by, and their airports provide a gateway out. He said having airports nearby to provide air medical evacuation is extremely important for those communities.

He said flying in goods and services is another important use the community airports provide in the Big Horn Basin.

Patton said utilizing charter services is important to businesses such as GDA, who can charter a flight and get to a meeting in Pinedale in 40 minutes rather than a five-hour drive.

He said flights to the community airports provide another avenue of transportation in the winter when roads are closed.

Patton said one saying he always remembers for airports is “build a mile of road and you go down that road; build a mile of runway and you can go anywhere.”

Inside today’s Northern Wyoming Daily News is the 72nd annual Big Horn Basin Edition where the Daily News takes a closer look at the community airports in Worland, Thermopolis, Powell and the two in Big Horn County near Cowley and Greybull.