Redmond Economic Development Inc. used the recent airport closure to show off what the facility means to the community.

Three people who work with Redmond Municipal Airport took part in a panel, which provided insight into how the airport impacts the local economy. It was part of REDI’s May 18 annual luncheon that took over the upper level of the airport, which was closed for three weeks for runway work.

“(The airport) provides a way for people to get here, beyond Oregonians, beyond people who live in the Northwest,” said panel moderator Bob Grim, a former National Football League receiver who went on to head businesses in Central Oregon.

The event drew more than 250 people to the airport, which reopened May 23.

The panel, which included Alana Hughson, CEO of Central Oregon Visitors Association, Trina Froehlich, a Mead & Hunt air service consultant, and Maurice Evans, manager of the U.S. Forest Service’s Redmond Air Center, gave hints about what people could see at the airport in the coming years.

The airport, which reopened after the $18.5 million runway reconstruction project, used federal grants to land passenger service to Los Angeles in 2013 and service to Phoenix, which starts June 2. But Froehlich said adding new destinations will be tough after that.

Redmond will likely need larger airplanes, carrying more passengers, for flights currently offered before airlines would consider adding flights to farther hubs such as Chicago, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Dallas-Fort Worth. Froehlich said new flights to closer locations are unlikely because there aren’t many hub airports on the West Coast that Redmond isn’t already serving.

“The hope is that as the market grows we’ll be able to support the larger aircraft,” she said. “It’s my wish that someday, on almost every flight, you have two-class seating.”

The numbers for Redmond stack up well, with 87 percent of seats full, Froehlich said. That is higher than the 80 percent national average and is the same as other Oregon airports in Portland, Eugene and Medford.

But the airport still needs to work on drawing local customers — a quarter of Central Oregon travelers still drive to other airports. Froehlich said there is little cost difference between Redmond and Portland airfare.

Central Oregon tourism is a $1 billion industry, and the visitors association has been busy promoting the area to Arizona residents in advance of the Phoenix flights, Hughson said. The current advertising focuses on the area’s golf and outdoor recreation, but it will switch to skiing before winter.

“They’re moving to a period of time where it’s well over 100 degrees,” she said. “A lot of people in Phoenix wish the flights were in place already.”

The event also featured a video, with leaders of local companies like Smith Bros., which supplies pushrods to NASCAR racing teams, and McConnell Labs, which makes gel for fingernail polish. They all said they would not be able to place their business in Redmond if not for the airport.

Other jobs are created by the USFS Redmond Air Center, which serves as a hub for aerial firefighting in Oregon and Washington. Evans said more than 1,200 firefighters train at Redmond during the year and 200 employees are stationed there in peak fire season, between June and October.

The firefighters have a $10 million impact on the economy, he said.

“A lot of those folks, obviously, stay here locally during that time,” Evans said. “They eat here; a lot of them stay in hotels. We do a lot of things to share the wealth locally.”

Another 5,000 people tour the air center. Evans would like to make it a more formal tourist attraction with a visitor center, which he hopes would bring in thousands more.

— Reporter: 541-548-2186, gfolsom@redmondspokesman.com