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New airline, sign coming to local airport

The transition to a new airline at Fort Dodge Regional Airport is underway.

United Express, operated by SkyWest Airlines Inc. will take over for Air Choice One on March 1. Rhonda Chambers, the airport’s director of aviation, told the City Council Monday evening that SkyWest Airlines already has personnel at the airport.

She said the airline is conducting training sessions in the terminal’s basement conference room.

United Express 50-passenger jets will link Fort Dodge and Chicago O’Hare International Airport. There, passengers can board United Airlines flights to destinations across the country and the world. They will be able to make those connections without having to recheck their bags.

In December, the U.S. Department of Transportation selected that carrier to serve Fort Dodge with the aid of a $3 million annual subsidy from the Essential Air Service program. That program provides money to ensure that airlines continue to serve smaller communities.

Passengers going to the airport for United Express flights will soon be greeted by a new sign welcoming people to the site.

Chambers said the stainless steel, double-sided sign will be 30 feet long and 7 feet tall.

”It should be pretty spectacular,” she said.

The sign is to be installed this summer.

Chambers talked about the airline transition and the new sign as she presented the airport’s proposed budget for 2021-2022 to the City Council.

The proposal calls for spending $677,015.

That’s up from the current $653,113.

The airport generates some revenue, so not all of that $677,015 will be coming from city property taxes.

The revenue includes landing fees, rent from businesses that are located there, income from farmland that is part of the airport complex, and a fee of 6 cents per gallon added to the price of every gallon of aviation fuel sold there.

Because of that revenue, city property owners will pay $296,568 for an airport that costs about $677,000 to run.

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