The upgraded terminal at Ogden’s small municipal airport has a new ticketing area and an indoor baggage-claim area while outside parking and road access has been improved.
The upgrade “brings our terminal standards up to the current expectations of the airlines and the passengers. That’s what we were lacking,” Brian Condie, director of Ogden-Hinckley Airport, said Friday at a ceremony to publicly unveil the changes.
The most recent changes are only the beginning of improvements officials envision ahead of the 2034 Winter Olympics, though, as they try to bolster the fortunes of the city-owned airport and augment use of the facility. A new control tower is coming, though it will be several years off, Condie said, and officials hope to lure in new commercial carriers.
“Now we’re in a position with a professional terminal to go out, and we’ll be more attractive to airlines with these changes,” said Condie. The varied improvements unveiled Friday at a ceremony attended by Mayor Ben Nadolski, U.S. Rep. Blake Moore and other Weber County leaders cost $4.4 million, most of the funding coming from federal sources. Work started earlier this year.
The improvements are meant to serve Ogden’s expected aeronautical needs for the next 10 years, Condie said, while the airport’s “20-year plan” calls for the addition of up to six new jetways, the passageways that connect to airplanes. What’s more, he said officials are laying the groundwork to bring in a fleet of electric aircraft akin to helicopters — electric vertical take-off and landing craft, or eVTOLs.
The craft would quickly haul Olympic spectators from the airport to Snowbasin, the Weber County ski resort that will host a range of skiing events during the games.
“We’re looking at getting 30 or 40 of them from here up to the venue so we get people off the road,” Condie said.
A cargo apron is under construction at the airport to accommodate the craft, he said, and the city has applied for a state grant to install the equipment necessary to provide the electric power they would need.
‘We welcome the world’
Nadolski said Ogden officials are always in talks with airlines about coming to the city, and the upgrade has assisted in the efforts. Breeze is currently the only carrier operating out of the Ogden airport with two flights per week to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California.
“When we’re in those discussions, this project has been really helpful. They’ve known it is coming, they’ve seen the plans and they’ve seen the progress,” Nadolski said. “That is proof of the direction that we’re going, the vision that we have and the standard that we’re setting for ourselves.”
Looking forward to 2034, he said Salt Lake City International Airport won’t be able to accommodate all air traffic. “So this airfield is going to be really important for the Olympics and we’ve got to make sure we’re prepared for that. We welcome the world,” he said.
As for electric vertical take-off and landing craft, or, more generically, advanced air mobility, the mayor said the technology may sound “a little bit futuristic” but that it is coming. Ogden-Hinckley Airport, he said, is “going to be one of the important players.”
Moore referenced continued growth and development in the area as well as the coming Olympic games and said the airport upgrade is one way of being prepared.
“We have to be willing to take on the growth ... that’s naturally coming and this is part of it,” Moore said. “But this isn’t the end of it. We have to be willing to go in and make the investment so we can meet the need ... that we all know is coming, and today we’re celebrating a big step in doing that,” Moore said.
The Ogden airport was focus of an audit released in 2024 that, in part, noted “poor planning” that had led to 17 straight years of financial losses by the facility. While municipal airports aren’t necessarily expected to turn a profit or even break even, Condie said he and other officials have taken steps to address the issues outlined in the audit.