This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
When the St. George Regional Airport opened its gates in 2011, Airport Manager Rich Stehmeier said local leaders never could have imagined how quickly it would take off.
“In 10 years, it grew what we thought would take 30 years to do.”
Passenger traffic more than doubled from 2013 to 2023, when it served nearly 300,000 people. It’s one more example of southwest Utah’s growing pains, as Washington County’s population climbs past 200,000 people and millions of tourists descend on the area each year.
That’s why the airport asked the Utah Legislature to set aside $15 million in this year’s budget to build its first air traffic control tower — and got the money.
“Any time that you get that kind of support from the state, that’s just amazing,” Stehmeier said. “And, you know, it just couldn’t have come at a better time.”
Currently, flights in and out of St. George are controlled remotely by Federal Aviation Administration staff in southern California, so he said having a tower on site will help passengers fly more safely and with fewer delays as southwest Utah’s skies grow more congested.
Read more at kuer.org.
