Located just outside of Bemidji, Minn. – a town of nearly 14,000 people – the Bemidji Regional Airport covers an area of 1,740 acres and is owned and operated by the Bemidji Airport Authority.
The airport began as a 160-acre all-way field dedicated in 1932 and added commercial service in 1952. Formerly known as the Bemidji/Beltrami County Airport, it had a total of 13,251 operations in a 12-month period ending in October 2013 – the majority of which were general aviation. Each day, Bemidji Regional Airport offers multiple flights to Minneapolis-St. Paul through Delta Airlines.
Former airport manager Harold Van Leeuwan retired in mid-December after serving 11 years in his position. He says the Bemidji Regional Airport is one of the most capable airports in the state and can handle a wide variety of aircrafts under extreme weather conditions.
“It’s a very efficient airport that’s able to function in the climates up here very effectively,” Van Leeuwan says.
Throughout his time at Bemidji Regional Airport, Van Leeuwan says the airport had been nearly completely renovated, and that almost $30 million had gone into the project.
“The airport was reaching the end of its life expectancy as far as infrastructure and capability,” he says. “It was going to have to change, and we did that.”
Part of the renovation project included the removal and replacement of the airport’s two asphalt runways. The nearly 20-year-old terminal was renovated and almost doubled in size, and the airport’s weather reporting system was upgraded.
One of Van Leeuwan’s first tasks as airport manager was to help create legislation that would allow airports in Minnesota to be owned and operated by airport authorities rather than municipal agencies, which he says allows financial operations to be more stable and self-sustaining. The Minnesota Legislature passed the bill and in 2009 the airport transitioned into the ownership of the Bemidji Airport Authority, a five-member committee with independent funding responsibilities.
Some of the biggest changes affecting small airports are shifts in aviation operations. Van Leeuwan says pilots are increasingly changing from hobbyists to professionals, and leisure trips are becoming business trips as the cost of airplanes continues to rise.
“The hours flown are increasing, but the number of operations are decreasing,” he says. “That tells you that flights are no longer a hobby, they’re professional business trips.”
Van Leeuwan says that as the priorities of airports become profit-oriented, the next round of Bemidji Regional Airport leadership will most likely focus on how to foster economic development of the airport rather than physical development.
Van Leeuwan, who plans to work as an airport management consultant in Tennessee, says the most rewarding part of his 11 years at the Bemidji Regional Airport was overseeing the airport’s improvements.
“I enjoyed the opportunity to improve the airport and to serve the community,” he says.
