VIDEO/PHOTOS: The Provo Airport is well underway in its expansion, and with a bigger airport comes more flights and the need for more firefighters on staff. Airport officials said that if they get even one more big flight added to their roster from Breeze Airways, the FAA will require them to hire more full-time firefighters.
“It’s honestly bigger than I expected for Provo,” said Haley Runyan, who was traveling through the airport Wednesday. People traveling through the airport said they like the feel of this medium-sized airport. As it expands, officials are bracing for other needs that may come along with that, like how many first responders need to be on site. The FAA has rules for this based on what are called “index levels,” meaning the size of the planes that are flying through and how many times they do.
“We are currently at what is called an index level B,” Matt Jenson, operations manager for Provo Airport, said. Jenson said the largest airplanes coming through are from Breeze Airways. “Right now, we average about four daily flights from Breeze. We need to have five daily flights to bump up an index,” Jenson said. And, if they do scale up operations, “It’ll double what we are required to do now, personnel-wise and truck-wise.”
That means two firefighters on at all times, and two firetrucks. “It’ll definitely increase our costs, but we don’t know exactly how much,” Jenson said. The airport doesn’t know exactly when that will happen either, but they’re already working on getting more trucks in service and getting staffing levels up. According to Jenson, “It could happen next week, it could happen in a few months, but it’s going to happen soon.”
