More than 4,000 pilots call Minnesota their home flying through the skies, according to the Minnesota Pilots Association. Here in the Northland, the Cloquet Carlton County Airport recently received a significant amount of federal funds.

The money will go towards maintaining their roadways, build more hangers, and other investments in aviation. US Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith recently secured over $200,000 through the Airport Improvement Program grant to get more people interest in flying and to build the industry around flying.

“There’s no better way to train pilots than flying over Lake Superior. So if you can fly over Lake Superior, you can fly anywhere,” Sen. Klobuchar said. “We’re gonna have a shortage of mechanics and engineers and people that are working in the trades and people are working in fields like aviation. So with Cirrus right nearby, with all the work that we have with our fighter wing up in Duluth, it’s a really cool place to be doing aviation.”

The Airport Improvement Program grant will help support the construction of a new 11,500 square foot hangar for aircraft storage.  Some of the other airport infrastructure projects will be new runways, taxiways, signage, lighting, and markings.

“Cloquet Carlton County Airport is an essential link for residents and businesses in Carlton County and beyond,” said Klobuchar. “This federal grant will make needed infrastructure updates to ensure the airport can continue serving travelers for years to come.”

The federal funds will help support the cultural surveys for the construction of several new hangers, and other investments. Quentin Anderson has worked at the Cloquet Carlton County airport for the past 26 years. He says the hangers are a integral part of revenue for the small plane airport.

“So currently we have a waiting list of 25 people. And the new hanger is, we’re looking at nine units in that T-Hanger. So that’ll help alleviate some of the waiting lists that we currently have. A lot of our revenues that come off those help us operationally to run the airport. So the more revenues we can take in off of hangers, the better we can work on operations of the airport and maintenance.”

The federal funds also go towards aviation programs. For the past 15 years, Bill Stone, the president of the Venture North Aviation continues to provide training for people wanting to become pilots every year.

“We train about 350 pilots a year or more. I mean, we’re expanding. We’re growing. We’re operating 10 airplanes. We have 17 pilots that work for us. We’re really focused on advanced ratings like commercial pilot certifications, instrument ratings, flight instructor certifications, multi-engine ratings, things like that. So it’s a great program.”

Also for more information on how you can become a pilot in Minnesota you can read more here.