Airport, aerospace community sees growth in Sandpoint

Out of all of Sandpoint’s industries, one of the fastest-growing and promising employers may be within the aviation industry.

For roughly the past decade, the number of jobs at the Sandpoint Airport seems to have steadily increased, said Andrew Berrey, owner at Granite Aviation.

“When I first started building those hangars in what, 2008, 2009, there were maybe 300 people that worked out there,” he said. “Right now there's over 800 people.”

The Sandpoint Airport provides roughly $51.7 million in earnings to its employees annually, according to a 2018 economic impact report — a jump from $15.1 million in 2008.

The amount of traffic to both the Sandpoint and Priest River airports has substantially increased, said Sandpoint Airport manager Dave Schuck. In the past three years, the Sandpoint Airport had 15 new hangars built to accommodate 30 more planes.

Out of 75 airports in Idaho with sevel commercial and 68 general aviation, Sandpoint is fourth in state earnings, he said.

Many of those jobs are not directly related to flying, but rather in manufacturing and engineering. Companies including Tamarack Aerospace, Daher Aircraft Company and Timberline Helicopters are a few of the airport’s major employers.

“I think a lot of people assume it's just kind of this playground for rich people,” Berrey said. “But in all reality, it's more about manufacturing and engineering, jobs like that.”

Last year, Tamarack went from 20 to 30 employees, said Tamarack President Jacob Klinginsmith. Although the pandemic has dampened air travel, the company has actually seen an increase in business because their technology helps provide aircrafts greater efficiency and cost savings.

The airport also has the potential to provide other jobs needed to keep those companies running, he said. He hopes to expand in the coming years, making room for more deliveries and installations in Sandpoint, Klinginsmith said.

“[That] will bring a lot of good jobs, high tech jobs in terms of engineering,” he said, “but also, you know, aerospace technicians and painters and things like that, sales and accounting. And I would like to see the same for Daher.”

Local companies seem interested in growth, said Jamie Slippy, senior engineer at Daher Aircraft Company.

“Growth is fueled by ideas and innovation in products that customers will spend money to have. In aviation, it is also about the love of aviation,” he wrote. “It is hard to describe, but people in aviation are passionate about it, whether they like to fly or not (and some don't).”

One of the airport’s employers, Timberline Helicopters, recently purchased 8.8 acres on the airport, said Brandon Hahaj, director of operations at Timberline.

There, they plan to break ground within the next two years — including a 60,000-square-foot development on the northeast side of the property.

The company also added an officially designated aerospace division last year, Hahaj said.

Timberline started in 2004 as a helicopter logging company, he said, with one Kaman K-Max helicopter. Since then it’s expanded to eight helicopters, and offer support for operations including firefighting, powerline construction and maintenance, helicopter logging and helicopter rebuild and refurbishment services.

One of the things that could prove a challenge to the airport in coming years, Berrey said, is negotiating land use with the city.

The Sandpoint airport is owned by the county, but operates within city limits. That means that zoning changes in the city could have the potential to impact airport operations, he said.

According to the airport report, incompatible land use could result in noise or safety-related concerns affecting airspace, overflights and accident severity. Without addressing those issues, there is a potential to limit airport operations, close airports or restrict access, the report said.

“There's been a couple of zoning changes,” Berrey said. “Luckily, nothing's been built on those zone changes yet. But some of those zone changes, if there were like, apartments near the end of the runway, you know, the FAA could potentially pull our funding.”

Despite those potential challenges, most members of Sandpoint’s aviation and aerospace community say they see potential for more growth in the coming years.

“It seems the companies that are here continue to weather these ups and downs,” Slippy said. There seems to be an increasing number of people learning to fly [North Idaho High School Aerospace Program] made some incredible progress in the community, as their efforts have provided training and enthusiasm to the younger – and sometimes not so young – people in the area.”

Started by flight instructor Ken Larson, NIHSAP provides free aviation education and reduced cost flight training for high school students. As of this year, it had 26 former students who had moved on to careers in aviation.

“It is fun to see high school kids actually building and flying airplanes,” Slippy said.