Kevin Renfrow

The City of Newport has been working on bringing back commercial air services for several months, and now, with the help of a $3.6 million Oregon state grant, they are ready to make that dream a reality.

The return of commuter air service at the Newport Municipal Airport is about to take flight with word Friday that the project has received $3.6 million in funding through a ConnectOregon II grant.

Newport has been working in partnership with the Port of Astoria to create a commuter air service between Newport, Astoria and Portland International Airport. The Oregon Transportation Commission announced last week that 30 projects involving rail, air, marine and public transit transportation will receive funding through the $100 million, lottery-bond-backed program.

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This is truly exciting news for the City of Newport, the citizens of Lincoln County, and the many tourists who flock to the central Oregon Coast each year. A revived commercial air service will allow people to easily and conveniently travel to and from the coast.

I know personally, if I’m planning to travel alone, I would much prefer to fly out of Newport to Portland to cut down on transportation time as well as to prevent someone else from having to drive 6 hours round trip from Newport to Portland. Hopefully the prices will be reasonable enough to make this worthwhile.

Currently, the City of Newport has received proposals from two companies: Cape Air, based in the Northeast, and Air Azul (I was unable to find a website), based in Florida.

A little about the author: Kevin is a student at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, CA. He loves the outdoors and enjoys backpacking, camping, hiking, biking, kayaking, and just about everything. When he's not in the great outdoors, he spends his free time working on web development projects and tinkering with computers. Kevin is currently serving as the Web Coordinator for the Western Region, Order of the Arrow, BSA.