Hanford Municipal Airport along with several other rural transit agencies received $1 million in grants from the Small Community Air Service Development Program.
“We service all planes from the Kings County Sheriff’s Office, some dust collectors are here and we have private planes owned and maintained by the pilots. We’ve seen FEDEX planes when they needed to be rerouted, we’re an airport alternative for many different courier carriers,” said Bob Loogman, Hanford Airport Manager at 900 South 10th Ave.
The grant was jointly applied for in March of this year by Hanford Airport, New Coalinga Municipal Airport, Kings County Area Transit Agency and Fresno Chandler Executive Airport.
The grant money will provide seed funding for Fresno County’s multi-phase regional air mobility pilot project and cover the costs for the Frontier Energy project manager to hire and train staff for the eventual goal of combining transportation. air and land with electric vehicles to improve the quality of life for the San Joaquin Valley.
Frontier Energy plans to partner with Archer Aviation in 2024 to begin replacing existing aircraft with hybrid aircraft. The estimated reduction in operational costs will be 50%, allowing for the long-term economic sustainability of the project, according to the project documents.
The project is designed to demonstrate that an affordable, low-carbon, multimodal, on-demand air taxi integrated with electric vehicle ground transportation can improve the quality of life for rural and disadvantaged residents of the San Joaquin Valley. and reduce individual occupancy. vehicle journeys, vehicle miles traveled, greenhouse gas emissions and top pollutants, the documents say.
The total cost of the project is estimated at $3.9 million, with a planned budget over three years. Neither Hanford nor New Coalinga municipal airports currently offer commercial air service, and the project would seek to create “curb-to-curb” transportation to major air carriers such as Fresno Yosemite International Airport, through the use of air taxi services.
Frontier Energy has eight offices and a team of 140 people across the country, according to the project summary.
“The start-up phase has already started with ongoing meetings and this grant has been applied for. We are moving into the next phase called launch preparation, with staff training and establishing new service standards,” Loogman said. .
The third phase is the initial operational adjustment phase, a period during which Frontier Energy will “monitor key performance indicators to quickly identify problem areas in order to offer assistance in maintaining a high level of service quality”.
The next phase is expected to begin in January 2023, when project leaders will work to increase passenger numbers by partnering with local businesses to provide offerings such as Harris Ranch Inn and Restaurant.
The final phase of the project is to create and maintain environmental sustainability – from mid-2023 the project will switch to sustainable aviation fuel to reduce the carbon footprint by approximately 30% according to the project document.
The entire project, dubbed FC-RAMP, is expected to be fully operational by 2025.
“I hope this will produce positive economic results for the city of Hanford as well as the airport itself,” Loogman said.
