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We can talk freely, here, amongst ourselves — flying out of ACV can be a hassle, sometimes.

Most of the time, of course, everything goes exactly according to plan and having a local airport is a wonderful convenience. One-way flights to Burbank for under $100? Fantastic. Your employer’s footing the bill to get you to some conference in middle America? They’re not going to balk at the extra cost.

But once in a while, you spin the barrel and it lands on that sixth chamber. Flights delayed. Flights canceled. You’re camping out at SFO for days on end, desperately dreaming of delivery.

Cody Roggatz, Humboldt County’s Director of Aviation, joins us for a Conversation today to talk about what the county’s doing to try to fix all that, or at least to make it less likely. The airport’s going to get major upgrades this summer — so major that it’s going to shut down all flights for about two weeks in August — with the goal of modernizing the infrastructure somewhat. Roggatz is here to tell us what they’re hoping to accomplish.

Video above, transcript below.

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JOHN KENNEDY O’CONNOR:

Welcome to another Humboldt Conversation. I’m here today with Cody Roggatz. Did I get that right?

CODY ROGGATZ:

You got it.

O’CONNOR:

Who is the Director of Aviation with the Humboldt Airport. Or what is the actual official title? Because everyone has a different name for it.

ROGGATZ:

Yeah, for the airport itself, it’s the California Redwood Coast-Humboldt County Airport. I just say ACV, to keep it simple.

O’CONNOR:

There’s quite a few changes coming up. A lot of changes to the runway, electrical improvements, etc. that are going to be happening this fall, which is going to have a very big impact on the airport, because the airport itself is going to have to close.

ROGGATZ:

Yes, yes.

O’CONNOR:

So what is the situation?

ROGGATZ:

So, for the first time in about 25 to 30 years, we are doing a major overlay of our primary runway. Unfortunately, our primary runway here at ACV is the only runway that airlines can use at any of our six airports. It’s the only one long enough for them to safely take off and land. But what we’re gonna be doing starting in June is phase one of an electrical upgrade, and that’ll be replacing infrastructure that dates back, some of it’s all the way back to the 1950s actually. So, long overdue for replacement.

We’re super excited to be receiving the federal funds to be able to do this. It’s about a $20.2 million project. When we’re done with phase one of that electrical, that’ll roll into pavement. So we’ll mill two inches off of the runway surface, add six inches to that infrastructure. And then on the third phase, so that second phase is August 14th through the 25th, so 12 day closure. And then on the backside through about mid-December, we’ll be finishing up the electrical and bringing those new lights up to be flush with that new surface. So they’re actually four phases.

O’CONNOR:

One, three and four will not impact the closure of the airport. It’s only phase two.

ROGGATZ:

It’s one, two, and three, and all three will. So two is the main impact. That’ll be 12 full days of closure of the entire airport. We’re hoping we don’t have to do anything like this for about another 20 years. So it’s a short-term sacrifice for the long-term benefit so that we can keep that runway open in the long-term and keep it structurally sound for the bigger aircraft that we have coming and going. The electrical on phase one and three will not have impacts to the airlines, but we worked very closely with them to compress that phase two paving timeframe. But also on phase one and three, we’ll be doing overnight closures, so outside of their normal operating windows. So it’ll only be overnight when we typically don’t have airline flights anyways.

O’CONNOR:

Now is there any contingency possible for that closure period? I mean, will the flights operate from other local airports? Will there be transportation to those airports? Or it really is just a closure? 

ROGGATZ:

It really is just a closure. We’re continuing to meet with the airlines. We’ve been meeting with them for over six months discussing this now, and they’ve been a part of planning for this. And one thing we’ve asked them to do is monitor the bookings that they have prior to the closure and if they have the capability to add some additional flights on those days leading into that 12-day closure to address those folks that won’t be able to fly during those 12 days.

O’CONNOR:

Now we recently ran a survey on Lost Coast Outpost and it was very interesting. The majority of people said they actually still would prefer to travel out of Medford or San Francisco and do that commute because they’re frustrated by the airport. I mean how do you react to hearing something like that? It’s very negative.

ROGGATZ:

It is, and I think it’s, for a lot of folks, it’s been decades for some people where they’ve been frustrated. This is a big piece, is replacing this electrical infrastructure and the runway pavement itself. But we’re also working on another project on the planning side and evaluating if we would be eligible to upgrade our approach system here, which is what folks talk about typically is our fog. And if you look back at the history of this airport, it was put here to train pilots in foggy conditions because it’s so prevalent.

Now, if you look at the statistics, too, a lot of our delays and cancellations are actually credited to issues with San Francisco and that airport being so congested. But nonetheless, we’re making an effort on the home front here to try to ensure that we have the best systems possible moving forward.

O’CONNOR:

Because we spoke to a reporter, she was actually up here, it took her three … she lives here, it took her three days to get home. And in fact she was in the air, but they had to turn back. And that is very bad.

ROGGATZ:

It is very frustrating and we’re trying to do the best we can and get the latest technology if we’re eligible for that. But we’re in that exploratory phase right now, we’re just kicking that project off. I’ve been here for four and a half years and the records that I’ve dug through, I haven’t seen any evidence of this being explored before. So we’re trying to get the best we possibly can that’s available in the industry.

O’CONNOR:

And will there be more flights added once the runway is in better shape? Because we lost the American flight to Phoenix, that’s gone. And others have also reduced service, etc. So will airlines be coming in rather than out?

ROGGATZ:

Yeah, so we actually added a whole bunch of service last year — well, now a year and a half ago, in 2021. We did lose some of that last year in 2022, but we have retained the majority of that capacity. The Burbank service with Avelo has been wildly successful and very popular with the local community. We’re very thankful for the community supporting that.

Unfortunately, the Phoenix one in particular that you mentioned was load factor-wise, or seats filled versus those available, was very successful, but the industry as a whole, not just American on the regional level, which was who is providing that service, is really struggling with pilot capacity. There’s a nationwide pilot shortage that there’s a lot of headlines daily about that situation, and many small communities like Humboldt or like the ACV airport have been negatively impacted a lot worse than we have.

So while we don’t want to ever see anybody leave, and it was unfortunate to see American go because that was a great service directly to Phoenix and the large hub that they have there, providing connections in and out of the Phoenix region, we are still meeting with airlines. In fact, that’s why you and I aren’t sitting down until today, or part of the reason. Just a couple weeks ago we were meeting with airlines and throwing those pitches.

I don’t know that we’ll have anything exciting to announce here in 2023, again due to the pilot constraints and capacity issues, but we’re full bore ahead on trying to entice somebody to come in here or multiple new routes, hopefully, for 2024 or beyond. 

O’CONNOR:

Will you go to London at any point, or…

ROGGATZ:

I don’t know about a direct flight. Either way, we’re just rehabbing it.

O’CONNOR:

Cody, great to meet you. Thanks for taking the time for a Humboldt Conversation today. Great to see you.

ROGGATZ:

Thank you very much.

O’CONNOR:

I hope to have another Humboldt Conversation very soon.