(Radio Iowa) – The Ankeny Regional Airport is getting two-and-a-half MILLION dollars from the federal government to expand its primary runway to six-thousand feet. Jeff Wangsness is chairman of the board that oversees operations at Ankeny’s airport.
The Ankeny airport opened in 1994 and it is now the third busiest airport in Iowa, with corporate jets accounting for about 40 percent of that traffic. Bobbi Bentz is the mayor of Ankeny.
Over 100 aircraft are based at Ankeny’s airport. Congressman Zach Nunn, a Republican from Ankeny, joined Bentz and other officials at the airport this week to announce the federal grant for the runway project.
The Iowa State Patrol stores airplanes at Ankeny’s airport, the Iowa National Guard is building a hangar there and Ankeny-based Casey’s General Stores opened its new hangar at the airport last year. Earlier this year, Ankeny airport officials announced nearly 90 people were on a waiting list for hangar space and about half of them already had a plane.
