Des Moines, Iowa — A state senator from central Iowa is predicting Governor Kim Reynolds will soon propose major funding for a new terminal at the Des Moines airport.
Senator Brad Zaun of Urbandale, a Republican, expects Reynolds to use part of her “Condition of the State” message in January to discuss using new federal infrastructure dollars for the expansion.
A plan unveiled in 2020 calls for constructing a new terminal, with 18 gates, that would open before the end of the decade. Zaun says there’s demand for more flights in and out of Des Moines, but no space in the terminal that was originally built in the 1930s and expanded in the 1970s.
Matthew Ahmann, an assistant vice president at Principal Financial Group, is the Greater Des Moines Partnership’s 2021 government policy council chairman. He says expanding gate space at the Des Moines airport won’t just benefit central Iowa.
House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst of Windsor Heights says many people have described the Des Moines Airport as Iowa’s front door.
Republican Representative Brent Seigrist of Council Bluffs says an affordable, robust airport like Eppley Airfield in Omaha has been critical to business in western Iowa.
Senate Democratic Leader Zach Wahls of Coralville says he mainly flys out of the Eastern Iowa Airport in Cedar Rapids, but would support an upgrade to the airport in Des Moines.
Congresswoman Cindy Axne of West Des Moines, a Democrat who supported the bill, says it will provide 120 million dollars for airport projects in Iowa. A total of five billion dollars is headed to Iowa for road, bridges, broadband and other infrastructure like ports and rail lines.
