Fargo’s Hector International Airport has received the “2020 Commercial Service Airport of the Year” award. The award is for excellence in maintaining safety, project management, and community outreach and is sponsored by the North Dakota Aeronautics Commission in partnership with the Airport Association of North Dakota.

Accomplishments for 2020 were:

2020 saw airports across the country face unprecedented challenges as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a historic decrease in commercial air travelers due to public health concerns. Hector International Airport worked hard to rise to the challenge, ramping up cleaning efforts to protect passengers and employees and investing in a robot vacuum unit to allow airport staff to focus on sanitizing vital areas throughout the facility. In December, the North Dakota Army National Guard began offering rapid-result COVID-19 testing at the airport terminal to help protect families and the community.

Hector International Airport boasts a busy and rapidly growing air cargo facility. 2020 was a record year with more than 420 million pounds of cargo flown through airport and a growth of 7.5% over the previous year. To support these operations, the airport is in the midst of a $15.9 million project that will greatly expand the air cargo aircraft apron and enhance capacity. Additional development projects include the expansion of the airport’s maintenance shop and the construction of an additional building to house vital maintenance and snow removal vehicles. A new $32 million support and training facility is also under construction to serve three North Dakota Army National Guard units.

Hector International Airport has joined with The Arts Partnership to showcase the work of local artists with its ArtWORKS exhibit. As part of the program, a variety of local musicians regaled airport visitors with 18 live musical performances during the 2020 holiday season. The Fargo Air Museum hosted a series of public events during the year including educational youth camps designed to get students excited about the fields of science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics. 2020 also saw the Fargo Jet Center celebrate its 25th anniversary serving the Fargo-Moorhead area.