$22 Million Fargo Jet Center Expansion

Fargo Jet Center is expanding its facility with a new $22 million, 112,000-square-foot hangar and office complex. The new complex is comprised of a 27,000-square-foot maintenance hangar, a 23,000-square-foot hangar dedicated to aircraft special mission modifications, a surround of maintenance and avionics support offices, technical workspace, and rooms for composite fabrication, paint, and sheet metal fabrication. The expansion will help fulfill the need for growth in aircraft maintenance, avionics, and special mission modifications. It will also provide additional hangar storage space for tenant and visiting aircraft.

Terminal Addition on the Horizon

In September, Hector International Airport unveiled its plans for a 75,000-square-foot, $123-million terminal addition. The addition, to be built east of the existing 115,000-square-foot terminal, will add four gates, for a total of nine, as well as more departure lounge space and accommodations for travelers who have cleared security. Among other features, there will be expanded post security food and retail options. Construction is planned to begin in the spring of 2024.

Quarterly Spotlight: Federal Aviation Administration Technical Operations Staff – (FAA TechOps)

The FAA TechOps  engineers and technical operations staff provides support for complex surveillance systems used in the National Airspace System (NAS). The Fargo Service Support Center (SSC) employs nine technical personnel and two administrative staff members. Possessing a wide range of specialist knowledge and training, the team ensures flight safety and efficiency by effectively managing air navigation services and infrastructure. The team maintains systems such as radars, instrument landing systems, radios, lighted navigational aids, and more.

Some of the activities and services they oversee include efficient flight services through responsive maintenance of NAS facilities, systems, and equipment; frequency spectrum engineering and navigational services for NAS; development, evaluation, and certification of NAS procedures and equipment; and infrastructure management. The team is critical for maintaining the airport’s safe and efficient day-to-day operations.

ArtWORKS Musical Performances

The ArtWORKS program at Hector International Airport hosted musical performances by local artists during the holiday season. Performances ran weekly over the lunch hour in the month of December. The four-week series celebrated creativity through collaboration with The Arts Partnership. Interviews with performers, as well as leaders from the Arts Partnership, were available.

The performances included:

• Kwaician Traylor
• Jake Ingamar
• Silver Winds Flute Quartet
• Jeremy Brekke and Michael Marmorstein
• Max Johnk

For more information, visit https://www.theartspartnership.net/artworks/.

Expanded Parking Capacity

The airport more than doubled its economy parking capacity with the opening of an additional parking lot. Located south of the Air Traffic Control Tower , the new parking lot will accommodate the growing demand for parking amenities.

With the addition of the new parking lot, Hector International Airport offers three parking areas: short-term, long-term, and economy. The new east parking lot is the airport’s second economy lot and adds an additional 363 parking spaces. The existing west economy lot provides 323 parking spaces. Rates for the credit-card-only economy parking lots are $2 every 30 minutes or $9 daily.

Travelers are encouraged to book their parking spot online before their trip by visiting fargoairport.com for a more convenient travel experience and up to 30% savings.

REAL ID Extended Deadline to May 7, 2025

Due to circumstances resulting from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is extending the REAL ID full enforcement date to May 7, 2025.

Effective May 7, 2025, American travelers must be REAL ID compliant to board domestic flights. To learn more about REAL ID requirements or to schedule your appointment to receive your REAL ID, go to https://www.dhs.gov/real-id.

Q4 Boarding Statistics

Hector International Airport’s passenger traffic remains strong, and we’ve continuously seen steady improvements.

October 2022
Hector International Airport’s airline passenger traffic in October showed an increase when compared to the same month in 2021. In October 2022, the passenger enplanements were 39,578. This is an increase of 2% when compared to the October 2021 passenger enplanements of 38,873. The total passenger count for the month was 77,758, which is up 3% over the same period last year. There were 526 air carrier departures with an average of 85 seats per flight in October and an average of 2,508 total daily passengers.

November 2022
Hector International Airport’s airline passenger traffic in November showed an increase when compared to the same month in 2021. In November 2022, the passenger enplanements were 38,014. This is an increase of 0.3% when compared to the November 2021 passenger enplanements of 37,911. The previous record for November was set last year. The total passenger count for the month was 74,344, which is down 1% over the same period last year. There were 540 air carrier departures with an average of 84 seats per flight in November and an average of 2,478 total daily passengers.

December 2022
Hector International Airport’s airline passenger traffic in December showed an increase when compared to the same month in 2021. In December 2022, the passenger enplanements were 43,610. This is an increase of 9% when compared to the December 2021 passenger enplanements of 39,913. The total passenger count for the month was 84,200, which is up 8% over the same period last year. There were 594 air carrier departures with an average of 91 seats per flight in December and an average of 2,716 total daily passengers.

2022 Year-End Statistics –  Second Busiest Year on Record
Airline passenger traffic in 2022 at Hector International Airport showed an increase compared to 2021. In 2022, the total passenger enplanements were 455,512. This is an increase of 14% when compared to the 2021 passenger enplanements of 399,172. This is the second busiest year on record after 2019 with 471,333 enplaned passengers. The total passenger count for the year was 908,075, which is up 14% over 2021 which had 796,675 total passengers. Hector Airport had 6,218 air carrier landings in 2022 that averaged 87 seats per flight and averaged an 84% load factor.

Air Cargo 2022 Summary
In 2022, 6,046 air cargo aircraft landed with a total landed weight of 409,949,060 pounds.  This compares to 2021 of 6,243 air cargo aircraft landed with a total landed weight of 420,371,732 pounds.  2022 had a -2.5% decrease over the previous year.  This decrease follows a national air cargo trend.