MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — The Morgantown Municipal Airport recently topped 10,000 enplanements for this calendar year meeting requirements for additional federal funding for the first time in 13 years.
MGW Director Jon Vrabel said the big driver was the regional jet used by SkyWest as opposed to the smaller aircraft used by former carrier Southern Airways. SkyWest continues to offer service to Washington Dulles but swapped Pittsburgh for the Chicago market and all the connecting possibilities not previously available to travelers.
“A big piece of it is the type of aircraft,” Vrabel said Wednesday on WAJR’s “Talk of the Town.” “We’re flying a 50-seat regional jet now, and we added a new market, Chicago and the surrounding areas and the connections.”
The goal for Morgantown is the 10,000 mark; however, Vrabel said the SkyWest standard is at the 20,000 enplanement level. SkyWest is pleased with the initial numbers, and at the 20,000 enplanement level, there are possibilities to add special, additional destinations.
“Once you hit that point, that’s when they start looking at offering some different types of services,” Vrabel said. “So, those are things we’re looking at building upon—if we hit that 20,000, then we’ll be able to have some good talks with them.”
Reaching the 10,000 enplanement mark also earns MGW inclusion into the Federal Aviation Administration Airport Improvement Program (AIP) that will boost funding from $150,000 to $1 million. The increase in funding won’t speed up the $60 million runway extension work; it remains on track to be complete in 2030, but more importantly, it demonstrates the value of the facility to the community.
“One million dollars a year isn’t much when you look at the size of the project as a whole,” Vrabel said. “But, it shows the airport is viable and that we are able to support the services, and that’s how the FAA looks at it.”
The next major project for MGW would likely be a new terminal and possibly a parking area. The increased air traffic has kept on-site parking at about 75 percent capacity, and activity in the terminal has increased.
“Once the runway is complete, then we’ll be looking at the next phases,” Vrabel said. “We’ve done some exploratory talks about the terminal; we’ve had a study done, but we can’t get the funding until the runway is complete.”
While this is a step forward for the airport and funding the runway extension project, the administration is expected to continue the search for additional funding sources. As traffic increases, if the airport were to reach 20,000 enplanements, more funding sources or even a municipal bond to fund construction could be sought.
“At that point we’ll have to look at what funding opportunities are available,” Vrabel said. “Not only federal funding, but maybe there are some local bonding opportunities to move the project forward.”
The airport ended the year with about 8,000 enplanements in 2024.