Fortunately, the various firefighting agencies and businesses that rely on the airport were given plenty of time to make alternate plans. And thanks to careful planning, commercial aircraft will only be grounded for a portion of the three-week-long repaving project.
Airport authorities adopted a “rolling closures” schedule that will have construction crews working on only one-third of the 9,500-foot-long runway during each of three closure periods, said airport director Cris Jensen.
The airport will begin the first phase of its $6 million runway repaving project on Aug. 27 at 8 p.m. That phase will take care of the easternmost section of the runway, which should be open again by 6 a.m. Friday, Aug. 31.
The middle phase of construction will begin the day after Labor Day. That section will be closed starting Sept. 4, at 8 p.m., and will reopen at 6 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 7. The final phase is set to begin at 8 a.m. the following Monday, and is expected to wrap up in time for weekend traffic the following Friday.
The last time the runway was repaved, in 1992, it was shut down from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for all of June - during the beginning of peak tourism season.
Under the rolling closure system, all five commercial passenger carriers - Allegiant Air, Big Sky Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Horizon Air, Northwest Airlines and United Airlines - will be able to continue some flights, although they did have to rearrange the flight schedules.
The U.S. Forest Service, meanwhile, has made plans to operate out of other airports as the need arises.
“We talked to the Forest Service a long time ago when we first started this process, and we touched bases throughout the planning process,” Jensen said.
Most of the Forest Service aircraft in use on wildfires in western Montana and Idaho so far have been helicopters, and those are usually based at the fire incidents rather than nearby airports, said U.S. Forest Service fire information officer Pat Thrasher.
The air tankers, Thrasher added, have used alternate landing locations in the past - particularly when visibility in the Missoula Valley becomes too difficult due to smoke.
“In fact, the visibility on the fires is so poor right now they're not relying on any fixed-wing aircraft out of Missoula,” he said.
Alternate landing sites span the region from Helena and West Yellowstone to Kalispell and Boise, Idaho, Thrasher said via telephone from the Forest Service's national headquarters in Idaho.
“Probably more critical is the Neptune operation simply because they have to bring aircraft in for maintenance, and that's the key reason we went to this rolling closure,” Jensen explained.
Neptune, the largest heavy air tanker outfit in the United States, is headquartered in Missoula. The company contracts to send air tankers to wildfires all over the country - and at the moment, it is very busy, said Neptune Aviation president Kristen Schloemer Nicolarson.
The Missoula airport arranged the closures so that Neptune could get one of its 10 tankers at the Missoula airport each week, Jensen said.
While the timing of the closures is not ideal, the folks at Neptune recognize the project is necessary and the company is confident it can work around it, Nicolarson said.
Neptune's air tankers are used to operating out of other airports, and can even use government bases when needed, she said. Also, each tanker has its own portable maintenance shop, so it can be kept fully serviced wherever it might be.
The company's crew, she added, is used to not knowing where they will be going at the beginning of any given day.
“This business requires us to be adaptable, so we adjust well to change,” she said. “It's the nature of the business.”
Reporter Tyler Christensen can be reached at 523-5215 or at tyler.christensen@lee.net.
Flight information
For flight information and details about Missoula International Airport's rolling runway closures, go to www.flymissoula.com.
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