March 29, 2024

Aviation boom

Newton’s quality facility sees increase in traffic, satisfaction

Editor’s Note: This is part one of a two-part series. Part two will publish in Tuesday’s Newton Daily News.

An economic tool, a community asset, an airport. The Newton Municipal Airport has been around for more than 60 years, and during that time has been a vital piece of Newton’s growth throughout the 20th century and its resurgence in the past 10 years.

The airport, in its current location, opened in the early 1950s and in the mid-50s the current runway was built.

“It was Earl Johnson and Fred Maytag that took off from Newton’s grass strip in 1952 to find the location for Newton’s current airport,” said Ethan Nasalroad, president of Midland Aircraft Sales and Services, Inc. “They set out from the old facility over by Cline Tool to look for some ground to put the new airport on.”

Johnson is the founder of Johnson Aviation, established in October 1949. It has served as the fixed-base operation in Newton since 1951. The company, along with Marshalltown Aviation, is now under the Midland Aircraft, Inc. umbrella — the sales, services and management operator.

“Maytag was a big influence. We’re a town of 15,000 people and I can show you all kinds of towns around of similar size that don’t have near the facilities that we do,” Nasalroad said.

Maytag started out as a customer of Johnson’s. Johnson, along with his pilots, flew the Maytag corporate airplane, and when the company got large enough, opened its own hangar and had its own pilots. Max Jay, one of Johnson’s pilots, even became the Maytag chief corporate pilot.

In the late 1960s, Maytag funded the construction of the facility at the airport. When Maytag wanted more runway, the amount of money it brought to the town gave justification to build it.

In the 1970s, a new terminal building was continued and it was not until 2000 that the city decided to replace it and build what is the current terminal building.

“It was a very unique project in that you had private and public money going toward this new facility. Maytag was a big donor with a matching grant but for a $1.4 million project, the private sector gave $800,000 to build it,” Nasalroad said.

Nasalroad came to the airport in 1999 as a manager, and in 2000 he bought the company.

“I bought it from Bill Smothers, who had previously bought it from Earl Johnson. I feel like I am third-generation, non-related,” Nasalroad said. “The company and the way we have done things have been this way and have been in place for us. I feel very fortunate to have had that upbringing in the company before I purchased it. There is a tradition that we try to uphold, that is always over me, saying — this was Earl’s, this was Bill’s, you need to maintain this. There is a lot of pride in that.”

Now, with what Nasalroad calls one of the nicest facilities around, the airport has a large runway size with outstanding landing capabilities and a very busy schedule.

“On the land side, which is the terminal building, we hear we have one of the nicest facilities. We also have a great amount of parking space. People are shocked to see with a town this size that nice of a facility,” Nasalroad said.

Corporate pilot Chris Wegener agrees.

“The facilities are in really nice shape, so it is kind of a hidden gem. They treat us great. If I need to go into town they have a vehicle for me. They do a nice job,” Wegener said.

Wegener is based in Topeka, Kan. and recently was in Newton for a morning meeting and lunch before taking off to another meeting in the afternoon before flying back to Kansas.

Companies that come to the airport are greeted by Lisa Nasalroad, Ethan’s wife and the office and accounts manager at the airport.

“The entryway and lobby were designed so either Lisa or I can see everything going on in the ramp. We can see when somebody comes in, we can get our line staff out to park,” Nasalroad said.

From there, the pilots have the ability to use the flight plan room to get weather and flight information, take advantage of the pilots lounge to take a nap or watch television or use an airport vehicle made available for trips into town.

Those there on business can use the conference room located in the terminal building if needed.

“The conference room gets used a fair amount. People fly in and just want to meet at the airport. They are more than welcome to use it,” Nasalroad said.

On average, the airport has between 9,000 and 14,000 operations a year. It is considered a category 2 airport because of the runway length and proximity to the interstate, along with its location in proximity to the other primary airport in Des Moines.

Between Newton and Marshalltown, the company manages four airplanes with four pilots on staff. The two planes that are based in Newton have different capabilities and different prices. The airplanes available can be leased for charter.

“If a customer wants something for an hour trip or if they want to fly to Florida, we have two options for them,” Nasalroad said. “With our aircraft management, we provide the pilot, we manage the airplane, we do the maintenance, fueling and cleaning of the airplane, along with storage.”

Andy Lundgren, a pilot at the airport, has been with the company since 2012. He first got his license while in high school at Pella, then worked as a flight instructor in Dubuque for moving to the west Chicago area to work as a pilot.

“It’s been great to work here. They run it really well and it’s nice being with a company that takes care of their employees.”

Currently, all of the T-Hangers at the airport are full. Housed inside them are airplanes owned by private hobby and weekend fliers. The company also provides flight training for those curious about learning.

“All of the pilots are also flight instructors. We believe in that. We’re always doing training. Flight instruction is the front door, in our mind, to aviation. If you don’t have flight instruction the airport isn’t going to grow, the aviation community isn’t going to grow,” Nasalroad said. “Where do we pull our future pilots, mechanics, where do we pull anyone to help the industry? How do we fill the T-Hangars if we don’t have pilots?”

Nasalroad said they love to do tours of the airport for students or community groups as well. People are able to get in the plane, they are shown what it takes to fly and he said a surprising amount of those people end up taking lessons and go on to work at the airport.

“In the last three years, there have been at least three kids who have worked through the airport with one who has gotten a career in aerospace engineering, one that is going to work on their mechanic’s license and another going to be a pilot somewhere,” Nasalroad said.

Recently, the airport has started taking on new customers and has seen a boom in business.

“We have been just swamped busy the last six months, it has been good,” Nasalroad said.

Currently, there are no major plans scheduled for the facility. General housing keeping items such as the removal of fuel tanks to another location are on their list to complete along with building a new maintenance facility.

"We do have funding for a maintenance building for the snow removal, general lawn care and maintenance equipment. We need to get that equipment out of where it is and into its own facility," Nasalroad said.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com