Economic Impact of Alpena County Airport Repairs

With the Alpena County Regional Airport shut down for runway repairs since May 8th, there have not been any commercial flights into the area.

This has affected downtown businesses, because they cannot bring clientele from around the country into Alpena.

“For them, they may be bringing in clients;” said Adam Poll, President of the Alpena Area Chamber of Commerce. “They may be bringing in executives, things like that, and they want to bring them right to Alpena so they don’t have to go out of the way, and it’s certainly been an inconvenience for them.”

Alpena in the late spring–early summertime is a vibrant and beautiful area. If businesses can’t fly in clients, they tend to miss out on the area at its best time. Moreover, businesses may be weary to invest in a town with an inoperative airport.

“Obviously, there is an impact,” said Poll. “The people that want to fly into Alpena, generally, they’d like to also shop in Alpena, and if they’re not flying in, then maybe they’re not shopping, so although I haven’t heard a direct complaint about it, it’s certainly impactful.”

Fortunately, the repairs should be done soon, and the impact of multiple runways that can bring in multiple different aircraft carriers will do wonders for the area, and make people forget the runway was even closed for two months.

“It is an inconvenient time, but obviously this kind of construction work can only be done when it’s not freezing,” They’ve timed it the best they could and have the littlest impact on our business community, but it is still impactful, but the positives very much outweigh the negatives.”

The runway repairs should be done within the next month, and the airport is hoping to be re–opened in July.