Duluth International Airport Announces Capital Improvement Plans and Highlight Economic Impacts

DULUTH, Minn. — Outside of the Twin Cities, the Duluth International Airport (DLH) is the busiest airport in Minnesota. On Wednesday, the Duluth Airport Authority (DAA) announced several large capital improvement projects that are planned for the next 5 years.

The last six months the airport conducted a study with the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Minnesota Duluth’s Labovitz School of Business and Economics. The study found that DLH added $1.4-billion in economic output to the area’s economy and generated $284.8-million in labor income each year.

The DAA is planning on spending an average of $30-million per years on infrastructure and capital improvements through 2029. Which administrative staff said it should generate $24.7-million to labor incomes and $61.1-million in annual economic output.

“We have much more to do over the next five years,” said Tom Werner, the executive director at DAA. “The airport plans to spend nearly $150-million on capital improvement projects, including continued reconstruction of our two-mile long parallel taxiway, additional hangers to support aviation businesses, and a new air traffic control tower at the Duluth International Airport.”

These investments are possible by a the airport authority’s partnerships within the local communities and state legislatures.

The airport also generates extra revenue from their 19 business partners that operate on airport property. Their biggest partner employer, Cirrus Aircraft, employees just around 1,700 people. The company is excited to see how the new developments will grow our area’s aviation industry and help bolster their production of new aircrafts.

“This economic impact extends not just locally, regionally,” said Pat Waddick, the president of innovation and operations at Cirrus Aircraft. “It goes throughout the nation and, of course, even the world, but quite a few of those folks are right here in the Twin Ports area. So when Cirrus grows, our partners grow, our community grows and that is an incredible equation.”

Airport authority admin say that the new air control tower’s concept is completed. They’re just awaiting to secure both federal and state funding before breaking ground.