The Sioux Falls Regional Airport Authority accepted the first two bids of a possible four bid project that could eventually total over $100 million.
This is the first step towards a project that would add a concourse, and with it an additional five gates at the Sioux Falls Regional Airport.
Officials say as the area continues to experience growth, these are needed improvements.
Dan Letellier is the Executive Director of the Airport Authority. He said across the nation a lot of airports are seeing a trend of flat growth and expecting less travel demand this year. He said that’s not the case for Sioux Falls.
“We haven’t seen that here. Just the month of May we were 9% ahead of May of last year. For the first 5 months of the year, we’re 8.5% ahead of our record year last year, so we’ve got a good start to the year. We’ll see how the summer goes, but people are continuing to move to Sioux Falls," Letellier. "And those folks that move here, they’re traveling for leisure, they’re traveling for business, they’re traveling friends and family to see where they move from. We have a very robust travel sector here, and we’re just trying to make sure we have a facility that’s able to meet that demand.”
The first bid is a $23.5 million project to provide a building shell and the second a $12 million project to improve and add to the terminal apron. Letellier said both projects came in a few million dollars less than anticipated.
During South Dakota’s legislative session, the House rejected a bill that would have allocated state funds to help fund such projects. It would have helped Sioux Falls Airport get closer to its $100 million goal for the full project.
Letellier said now they are looking at “many different options” to help fund the rest of the project. He said they’ve been in contact with both federal and state legislators, as well as the Sioux Falls mayor and City Council.
“Some potential future funding, There’s a couple grant programs that are still out there that we hope to tap into that would help us complete the full build," Letellier said. "We’re looking at quite a few different options out there to try to make sure we can put together a final funding package to accomplish the full project.”
The airport authority also agreed to issue up to $30 million in airport revenue bonds. He said the hope is some additional funding sources could bring that number down.
