Canyonlands Field Open House
August 29, 2004

By Carrie Switzer

Canyonlands Field will be festive and inviting on August 29 when vendors and service providers have an open house to reintroduce the community to the wide variety of transportation services available here.

For 20 years air service of varying degrees has been available just 15 north of town, but never before to the degree of current services. Car rentals, Salt Lake City shuttles, scenic flights, photography and skydiving are all available at Canyonlands Field. There is on-site management and Federal security. On August 29 the community will be invited to visit the airport, have a hot dog and beverage, and see for themselves what is offered. The airport is also home to a handful of local small aircraft owners and pilots.

The original Grand County Airport was moved from Spanish Valley to its current location north of town in 1964, according to former County Airport Board member Bob Dalla. At that time, Frontier Airlines held the Essential Service Provider contract subsidized by the federal government to provide air service to remote communities. In 1984 the contract was awarded to Alpine Air, which provided daily service to and from Salt Lake City until the late 1990s. Alpine lost the contract at that point and two carriers since have been unable to maintain consistent service. Salmon Air began running two round trip flights to Salt Lake City on weekdays and one per day on the weekends in March. All Salmon Air employees live in Moab, including three pilots, an operations manager and support staff. As of July 16, Salmon Air had flown 237 out of 238 scheduled flights, an impressive record by recent standards. The first flight leaves Moab at 7:30 a.m. and the last return flight from Salt Lake City arrives at 6:30 p.m. Each flight takes approximately one hour and fifteen minutes. The airline also has a reserve plane for charter flights.

Redtail Aviation operates year round at the Canyonlands Field Airport in Moab, providing services in support of all aviation activities at the airport.  This includes fueling and maintenance for based and transient aircraft, flight instruction, aircraft rental, charter and pilot services.  Redtail’s maintenance base at Canyonlands is capable of supporting all based and transient aircraft. The flight instruction offered can take someone from ground zero through commercial pilot or flight instructor and has taught many from the local community to fly.  Aircraft is available to rent for locals as well as visitors who are qualified.  Redtail Aviation provides charter services from Moab to Point B and back, wherever Point B may be. The pilots, aircraft, and maintenance are trained, certified, and inspected to FAA Air Carrier standards.

Through the summer season, Redtail gears up extensively to support the tourism business in Moab, providing river shuttle services for Outfitters and individual groups.  This typically means picking up large groups of people at the Hite airstrip after they have floated Cataract Canyon or dropping people off at the Sand Wash Airstrip at the head of Desolation Canyon.  Taking a scenic flight over the beautiful Moab area could possibly be the highlight of anyone’s vacation.  People will see more of Canyonlands in an hour air tour than they could possibly see from the ground in weeks. 

Slickrock Air Guides has been in operation since 1993. Owner Gene Boyle said the emphasis on his service is “sharing my knowledge and experiences of the canyons from its depths to its heights.” The flights are fully narrated and guided site-seeing tours of Canyonlands National Park and the surrounding areas. Boyle has six aircraft and offers a one-hour Canyonlands tour, a two-hour Canyonlands/Monument Valley tour, and a three-hour “Secrets of the Southwest” journey that includes Canyonlands National Park, Lake Powell and the landing at Marble Canyon. At that point there is a short walk to the Navajo Bridge, where passengers have a view into the Colorado River meandering through the Grand Canyon.

Thrifty Car Rental has a Moab office open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, and has vehicles available at the airport for incoming passengers. There is a local courtesy shuttle and one-way rentals available to most major western U.S. cities. Customers may be met at the airport by appointment, or reservations may be made on line at moab.thrifty.com. Sedans, mini vans, 4x4s and SUVs are all available through Thrifty Car Rental.

For the adventurous visitor Skydive Moab is as one recent skydiver said, “over the top.” Its young and capable skydivers and pilots call Moab “America’s most scenic drop zone.” After viewing a DVD clip of one such experience, I would have to agree.

Skydive Moab will host its own event on October 1-3, bringing skydivers from across the country and around the world to Moab’s Canyon Country. During the event “tandem jumps” will be offered at a discounted rate and spectators will be able to visit the airport for lunch and a spectacular skydiving show. The photography skill of Skydive Moab is in itself worth seeing.

Lake Powell Air, Arrow West Aviation, Arches Helicopter Filming Service, and Mountain Flying Service all operated out of Canyonlands Field as well. It is managed by long-time tenants, Slickrock Air Guides.

Bob Dalla says development of the airport north of Moab has allowed for larger aircraft and the ability to upgrade the runway for even larger jets.

“More and more we have corporate planes coming in and we’re in a position of being able to grow with that,” he said.

For more information about any of these services and the upcoming Open House call 259-6216, or 259-0566.