CAA: GA News, "Newly-Refurbished Airport in Thermal, Calif., Completed"

["Stephen Irwin" <stepheni@xxxxxxxxx>]

Monday, March 4, 2002

Newly-Refurbished Airport in Thermal, Calif., Completed
The Business Press, Ontario, CA


The desert communities have a new airport blooming with almost $8
million in recent improvements.

Located at Thermal, south of Coachella and east of La Quinta, Desert
Resorts Regional Airport serves private and corporate flyers who live
and play nearby.

The California Highway Patrol maintains its Coachella Valley air
operations base at Desert Resorts airport.

The main runway, No. 1735, has been lengthened from 6,800 to 8,500 feet.
Weight bearing was improved to better handle aircraft up to the size of
a Boeing 737. Although the larger flights at Desert Resorts are usually
business jets, most are general aviation, said Rob Field, aviation
division supervisor for Riverside County's Economic Development Agency.
The agency took over responsibility for the county airport in 1997.

The operational improvements were the result of $3.5 million in grants
from the Federal Aviation Administration and Caltrans.

Another $3.5 million from a federal community development block grant,
helped pay for infrastructure improvements to the terminal area, a World
War II-era hangar from the airport's wartime training base origins.

"We had restrictions because of the heat down here and length of the
runway," said Reni Schwalbe, Million Air-La Quinta, operator of the
terminal facility.

"With the work done, we're seeing a lot of positive response," she said.

Million Air is making preliminary plans for a new terminal facility,
based on a Spanish-style design similar to the La Quinta Hotel, with
office and lease space, a large lobby and a view balcony restaurant,
Schwalbe said.

The airport at Thermal was given the much more appealing Desert Resorts
Regional Airport name in October 1998.

"It has a better ring to it than 'Thermal,'" Field laughed.

The county is planning marketing activities in conjunction with five
nearby communities, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta, Indio and
Coachella.

"Any increase in traffic down there has got to bode well for all the
resorts in the valley," said Greg Raleigh, general manager and head golf
pro at the PGA West Resort Golf Course at La Quinta, about a mile from
the airport. The immediate area is home to no fewer than seven major
golf resorts.

Million Air's airport use continues to grow with the development of the
eastern Coachella Valley resort communities, Schwalbe said.

"People who come in here, live right here," she said. The improvements
will make it easier to spread the word about what has been "an obscure
little facility."

The airport logged 65,000 operations last year but the county has not
maintained detailed statistics, Field said.

Desert Resorts Airport poses no threat to the city-operated Palm Springs
International Airport, about 50 miles to the north, which handled almost
1.2 million flight operations last year, Field said.

"There's not enough traffic to justify two (commercial) airports," he
said, "but that's not to say it can't happen."

With the upgrades, the two airports have the same practical aircraft
handling abilities, said Field, who characterized the likely
relationship as complementary. There is plenty of room for future
development on the mostly undeveloped 1,600-acre desert airport site.

Riverside County also operates French Valley, near Temecula, which, with
85,000 operations annually, is at operational capacity; Hemet-Ryan,
Blythe and two smaller airports.

Hemet-Ryan airport, which had its start as a World War II Army Air Force
training facility, serves mainly recreational flyers and handles about
65,000 flight operations each year.

Like Desert Resorts, Hemet is benefiting from a combined $3.5 million
grant funded by the Federal Aviation Administration, Caltrans and a
community development block grant for infrastructure improvements
including water lines, access roads and fencing.

"There's more interest (in Hemet-Ryan) now that we've done the work,"
said Field. Riverside County spends $1.2 million annually on its airport
operations.


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