CEDAR CITY, Utah — If you're like most people who come to the airport for a flight, there are two things you want before your flight: something to eat and a bathroom.
Both items were addressed in the recent expansion of Cedar City Regional Airport
"Our gate area had one bathroom, too. So one toilet for the total of up to 50 people," said airport manager Tyler Galetka. "And you know how it is at airports, we couldn't add a single thing. We couldn't even add a vending machine."
The tab for the expansion of Cedar City Regional Airport, called the “Gateway to the National Parks,” ran $5.5 million.
"We have a lot of things happening here at Cedar City Airport, between our commercial service, our flight school, Southern Utah University, they are the largest helicopter flight program in the nation. We have an air tanker base which does aerial firefighting for the southern region of Utah. We go into Nevada, Arizona, and even up to over to Colorado," Galetka explained.
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Instead of one gate, there are now two. And not one, but three bathrooms. Most of the airport's areas have doubled in size, including the security checkpoint, which now has a dedicated patdown room as opposed to a curtain used before.
The airport is the first to use funds from the COVID Recovery Act for airport improvements, which brought in about $1 million. Another $4 million came from the Federal Infrastructure Act passed by the Biden Administration.
The expansion comes on the heels of completed or ongoing renovations at regional airports in St. George and Provo. Galetka said the reason for this renovation-mania is that the airports have needed it for a long time.
"I think Utah, we've been very behind when it comes to adding control towers, expanding our air service. The opportunity didn't show up overnight."
