Grand Rapids Airport (GRR) News and Developments

[arcturus]

48 minutes ago, walker said:

Here it is:

https://www.grr.org/PDFs/NRs/nrProjectElevate.pdf

 

'As an “origination and destination” airport, GRR now has more aircraft that end their trips and park overnight in Grand Rapids than it does gates.'

Dropped a few off for early morning flights recently and it's quite the sight to see all the planes parked there.

[joeDowntown]

4 minutes ago, cstonesparty said:

Didn't they just finish renovating the concourses?  

Yes, but that was to modernize what they already had, combine security, prepare for growth, make it look less like a podunk airport.  

It looks like they basically fast-tracked the first portion of "Project Elevate".  Great news

Joe

[demhem]

The renderings look impressive:

[joeDowntown]

6 minutes ago, demhem said:

The renderings look impressive:

Good. I was thinking “please have tall ceilings”.  I always think the ceilings on the concourse feel short and constricting. Glad they’re opening it up a bit!

Joe

[GRDadof3]

30 minutes ago, demhem said:

The renderings look impressive:

Dang, that's pretty sweet. If we could only have that many planes at the gates at the same time. Someday, I'm sure. 

[GRDadof3]

1 hour ago, arcturus said:

'As an “origination and destination” airport, GRR now has more aircraft that end their trips and park overnight in Grand Rapids than it does gates.'

Dropped a few off for early morning flights recently and it's quite the sight to see all the planes parked there.

I've noticed that too! Got in around midnight a few months ago and there were all these sleeping planes there. Tons of them. But the airport was pretty empty. Now it makes sense. 

[WMrapids]

48 minutes ago, demhem said:

The renderings look impressive:

Here’s some more

Edited August 28, 2019 by WMrapids

[walker]

Here's the TV news announcement in Milwaukee this morning before the PR fight took off for Grand Rapids:

https://fox6now.com/2019/08/28/midwest-express-announces-initial-flight-destinations-from-milwaukee-mitchell-intl-airport/

 

[arcturus]

Milwaukee, Grand Rapids, Omaha, Cincinnati.

Are there any direct flights now which compete?  Will Omaha be non-stop?

Edited August 28, 2019 by arcturus

[GR8scott]

All good news, shows the airport is actually really planning ahead...mdot could take some notes. Some people may be disappointed with a small airline and regional destinations but could help diversify and continue to drive traffic.....may actually need a moving walkway for concourse A!

[GR_Urbanist]

I'm just happy to see the airport really actually maturing into something that is becoming a place to kind of brag about compared to other markets our size. It has come a long way from the time when my parents would drive us to what seemed like a tiny place in a sea of rolling farm fields 37 years ago to watch planes land. I have nothing but praise for my last trip in and out of there last year.

 

I still greedily hope for some sort of rail service between it and DT one day.

[arcturus]

They're running out of curb space.

The secondary terminal curb expansion as you enter the airport is just 60 feet.  The primary (longest) looks to be on the wrong end from where the 2 major concourses are.

[Raildude's dad]

4 hours ago, GR8scott said:

All good news, shows the airport is actually really planning ahead...mdot could take some notes. Some people may be disappointed with a small airline and regional destinations but could help diversify and continue to drive traffic.....may actually need a moving walkway for concourse A!

Do you know how the airport finances most of these improvements? User fees charged to the users ie the airlines. And the airlines pass the cost on to the passengers.  The Gov proposes $0.45 gas tax -  a true user fee - and the republicans and the vocal  public have a hissy fit.  MDOT and the local highway agencies are forced into a poor excuse of catch up - reactive not proactive like the airport authority.

[GR8scott]

5 hours ago, Raildude's dad said:

Do you know how the airport finances most of these improvements? User fees charged to the users ie the airlines. And the airlines pass the cost on to the passengers.  The Gov proposes $0.45 gas tax -  a true user fee - and the republicans and the vocal  public have a hissy fit.  MDOT and the local highway agencies are forced into a poor excuse of catch up - reactive not proactive like the airport authority.

Not trying to get too off topic but how does Indiana have much better roads...yet lower gas tax....and are somehow able to capture more federal funding to convert several roads to interstates? Totally agree on airport being proactive, mdot = reactive. WI same thing, these are states with half the population 

[sparky05]

I believe the release said that most of the funding will be coming from Federal grants and such.

Do you know how the airport finances most of these improvements? User fees charged to the users ie the airlines. And the airlines pass the cost on to the passengers.  The Gov proposes $0.45 gas tax -  a true user fee - and the republicans and the vocal  public have a hissy fit.  MDOT and the local highway agencies are forced into a poor excuse of catch up - reactive not proactive like the airport authority.

Edited August 29, 2019 by sparky05

[BLUESCRUBS]

 

Sure has come a long way.

[GRDadof3]

On 8/29/2019 at 12:15 PM, BLUESCRUBS said:

 

Sure has come a long way.

When your planes are bigger than your airport, you know you're small potatoes. 

[arcturus]

Guessing the picture taken mid 60's based on the cars?

Did the airport even have ramps back then or was it tarmac strictly?  Buildings didn't need to be very tall if so like many in that era.

[walker]

3 hours ago, arcturus said:

Did the airport even have ramps back then or was it tarmac strictly?  Buildings didn't need to be very tall if so like many in that era.

No, the concourse was one story ground level.  You walked out a door to your plane.    You couldn't use ramps then with propeller planes although many years later ramps were modified to handle some prop planes.  Pretty sure that's a United DC-6, a piston engine plane.  I remember they were noisy to ride in and had a lot of vibration.  

[walker]

You might recognize this from the stylized version of this poster that's painted on the Yesterdog wall.  Here's the original airline that flew from Grand Rapids to Milwaukee:

The Detroit part of this is you could take the train from Detroit and they'd let you out at the tracks adjoining the old Kent County Airport where you could then board a flight for Milwaukee.  This was an odd plane, it had an open cockpit for the pilots while the passengers sat inside.  They had several of these planes.  The plane was amphibious which was a nice feature if it crashed into Lake Michigan which it did a few times with no loss of  life or serious injury.

A bit of Kohler Aviation History 

combined train and plane schedule

Yesterdog's version:

Edited September 4, 2019 by walker
added link to train-plane schedule and Yesterdog wall

[Raildude's dad]

There is a State aviation fuel tax and a federal aviation fuel tax. Again a user fee collected by the State and federal govt and returned back in the form of grants.  There's no such things as free money. The airlines pay every time a plane lands and takes off. They rent their space from the Airport Authority

[mpchicago]

Pretty cool video of departures and arrivals at GRR.  Even departures of Steelcase and RDV jets.    Also nice detail on make/model, and age of planes as well. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6ILP7AG5I0

 

 

Edited September 11, 2019 by mpchicago

[BLUESCRUBS]

https://www.woodtv.com/news/kent-county/demand-prompts-private-hangar-construction-at-ford-airport/

A new $7 million dollar private hanger will be built at the airport.

[BLUESCRUBS]

Here is another blast from the past...

[GRDadof3]

https://www.woodtv.com/news/kent-county/allegiant-launches-new-orleans-flights-from-ford-airport

GRR to New Orleans