Mary Hamilton Reporting
You had better double check your flight plans if you plan to fly in or out of the Idaho Falls Airport during the month of September.
All of the passenger airlines, except Horizon, will stop service from September 2nd to the end of the month because the Idaho Falls Airport will be shutting down the main runway to rebuild it. That will leave the airport with only the secondary, shorter runway for flights, and most of the airliners are too big to land on it-except Horizon's smaller planes.
For frequent flyers like the Cardenaz family, that's good news.
"I'm excited because horizon is going to stay the same, so we're going to be able to fly in here and out, without any inconveniences for us," says Larry Cardenaz, who only uses Horizon Airlines to get between his home in California and Idaho Falls.
Cardenaz's daughter, Maria, attends BYU Idaho and relies heavily on Horizon flights.
"Not only will I be able to go home whenever I want to, if necessary," says Maria about the changes coming next month, "but I know that my parents and anyone else will be able to come up and visit me too."
The Cardenazes lucked out because all the other airlines besides Horizon will discontinue service until October, and Delta will re-route all its flights through the Pocatello Airport.
"We'll be torn up for a while, and we apologize for the inconvenience, but it's just a difficult time for us right now," says Len Nelson, who manages the Idaho Falls Airport.
...Difficult and expensive. It will cost nine million dollars to replace and re-surface 9,000 feet of runway. The federal government will pick up 95-percent of the bill.
As for regulars to the Idaho Falls Airport like the Cardenazes, they say they appreciate knowing their landings here will be safer in the future.
Also, the parking lot will see $1 million dollars in improvements, one of them being credit card machines at the exits to make paying for parking more convenient.
