Pandemic pauses a high-flying year at Duluth airport

DULUTH – The COVID-19 pandemic is upending a banner year at the Duluth International Airport, with passenger counts soaring, business growing for airfield tenants and runway construction finally finished.

"You don't get to pick the timing of a crisis like this," said Tom Werner, executive director of the Duluth Airport Authority. "There hasn't been a part of the Duluth aviation industry that has not been impacted."

The airport budget largely depends on revenue from passenger flights — many now canceled — and fees from supporting services like rental cars and parking.

Werner said $10 billion from the recent federal stimulus package was set aside for airports and will help fill in the lost money. An industry group expects U.S. airports to miss out on more than $12 billion in revenue this year.

Duluth "and airports around the country are grateful for the expeditious passage of that bill," he said. "Infrastructure renewal would be put on pause otherwise."

Even though a $38 million runway rebuild was completed last year, "We're in a constant state of renewal," Werner said.

In February more than 25,000 passengers moved through the airport, about 50% higher than February 2019. March typically sees a jump in traffic as vacations start to increase. Not so this year.

"We were really looking forward to the spring break season," Werner said, which was also expected to boost the Landline bus service to the Minneapolis airport.

The Airports Council International-North America expects passenger traffic to drop by 37% this year compared to forecast levels.

Planes still fly to and from Chicago and Minneapolis for the limited few whose travel is essential, and the airport is taking extra precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among staff and passengers.

When the crisis is over, Werner is expecting traffic will ramp back up — without American Airlines, which is leaving the market at the end of April — rather than quickly bounce back. Since many flights are dependent on business travelers, the airport will directly reflect the health of the economy.

The Duluth region will in turn feel the effects, as a Minnesota Department of Transportation study found the airport pumps more than $760 million into the local economy.

More than 3,200 people work at the Duluth airport, most of them outside the passenger terminal. Cirrus Aircraft started furloughing some employees on Monday, and AAR Corp. executives discussed furloughs and layoffs in an earnings call last week. A local AAR official did not return a request for comment on the status of its 400 local employees.

Brooks Johnson • 218-491-6496