Pittsburg airport to receive help due to pandemic

KANSAS — The airline industry has been one of the many industries impacted by the pandemic. But, Pittsburg’s Atkinson Municipal Airport has somehow managed to keep things going.

Now — it’s about to receive some help.

Daron Hall, Pittsburg City Manager, said, “With the public side of things, people being out and about has obviously taken a huge hit with the shut down.”

Air travel took a huge hit more than a year ago as a result of the pandemic.

Bill Pyle, Atkinson Municipal Airport Manager, said, “Aircraft business, aircraft did slow way down, people weren’t wanting to fly into the major cities, so we did see some decrease in our fuel sales.”

But things didn’t stop at the Atkinson Municipal Airport. Thanks to most of its business coming from private enterprises, operations continued.

“We don’t really have a commercial traffic that you would expect in another airport, so as business has continued, those jets has continued to fly,” said Hall.

“We still had medical flights in and out. We have military and police, those types of flights still continued on,” said Pyle.

The airport kept an open runway, continuing to help the city of Pittsburg in its economic development.

“We’ve had over half a billion in the last six years, seven years, the Pittsburg airport is a big part of that. The ability for businesses to fly through here and do their business and fly out so easily and safely, is just a tremendous asset that we have that a lot of communities our size don’t,” said Hall.

It’s also receiving assistance from Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act and the FAA to help keep operations running.

“It’s so huge, that there’s no way our local community could support the cost for that, so yeah it’s definitely a benefit and something we greatly appreciate,” said Hall.

To help build on more business as people continue to return to the sky.

“I would hope to see things start to get a little busier, but fortunately we are operating good,” said Pyle.

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