28 OPERATIONS September 2026 AirportImprovement.com MKG on-time flights per year. In addition, the carrier’s regional jets can fly straight across the lake and perform well year-round in Muskegon’s temperamental winter conditions. Just as important is the airline’s culture. “They have a great reputation for just not cancelling flights,” Efting reports. “They fight tooth and nail to make sure that they fly when they say they’re going to fly.” In a community scarred by unreliable service in the past, that mattered. Securing service from Denver Air was the airport’s first big high-visibility win. The airline did more than move passengers, it gave the public a reason to look favorably at the airport again. From there, Efting says, the county board’s posture shifted from skepticism toward commitment and investment—the foundation the rest of MKG’s turnaround would eventually stand on. But there was plenty of work still to be done. Fixing the Roof The terminal dated back to 1994 and still had its original roof. Roughly 70% of the exterior walls were made of glass; so needless to say, the building leaked badly. During Taig’s stint, a good portion of the ceiling caved in under water damage. For Efting, improving the terminal was necessary to establish basic credibility. “If you want to be viewed as a legitimate option for a regional air service, it has to look like quality regional air service,” he reasons. “You can’t have people walking in the door and seeing a bucket catching a leak. It had to get fixed.” The roof and terminal renovations were combined in an approximately $3 million project that received both state and federal funding support. Work took the better part of a year and went well beyond weatherproofing. The renovation refaced the building exterior and modernized the interior, which Taig says had been stuck in an earlier era of glass curtainwalls and awkward climate control— too hot in summer, too cold in winter. It also solved smaller indignities that added up. The new design added restrooms behind the security checkpoint. For the first time since the post-9/11 advent of TSA, passengers no longer had to exit and be re-screened simply to use the restroom before their flights. In 1994, travelers didn’t have the constant need to charge cellphones, laptops and other personal electronics, so the terminal had only a handful of available outlets. Knowing what a rub this was for passengers, Efting brought in an electrical contractor to wire the curtainwalls. “Here we are in 2025 solving a problem that we should have solved a decade ago,” he muses. To Efting, none of these were isolated fixes. The terminal set the stage for every tenant to fail or succeed, and its condition rippled outward to the airline counter and beyond, creating a first impression for travelers. CUSTOM TENSION FABRIC BUILDINGS SUPERIOR PERFORMANCE. RAPID INSTALLATION. Concept to Installation Patented Attachment System Relocatable Fully Customizable Fast-Track Construction In-House Engineering Call for more information, or to receive a quote 877.259.1528 | LEGACYBUILDINGSOLUTIONS.COM A previous ceiling failure underscored the need for recent terminal renovations.
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