Tim Unruh

April 10, 2026

Lively chatter muffled briefly Thursday morning as some 100 proud Kansans gathered to celebrate and witness aviation history.

“Today is a huge day for the community and the state of Kansas,” Pieter Miller, Salina Airport Authority executive director, announced from the podium in Hangar 600. “We will be cutting the ribbon for the first overnight maintenance facility in Kansas,” he said, prompting a spirited round of applause.

With a huge pair of scissors, U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kansas, helped Chip Childs, president and CEO of SkyWest Airlines, mark the beginning of a new venture for North America’s largest regional airline.

“I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to celebrate the culmination of this partnership with Salina Airport, the community, and the state of Kansas,” Childs said. “We’re proud to have served Salina since 2018, and to have recently been able to grow that service beyond Denver and Chicago to add Houston as a third United destination last year.”

Some of the fleet’s nearly 500 aircraft will be maintained in the east half of the hangar on the Salina Regional Airport and Industrial Center.

“Salina is a natural fit for another maintenance facility within our operation,” Childs said, mentioning the “heavy maintenance provider” in Salina, 1 Vision Aviation.

 The maintenance center will initially employ 20 airframe and power plant mechanics, and maintenance technicians.

“These are great careers and (we) continue to offer exceptional careers with the best regional airline in the industry,” Childs said. “SkyWest was founded on safely and reliably connecting small and mid-size communities to the world, and that has remained our mission for more than 53 years.”

He praised local leaders for their efforts in bringing the SkyWest service to Salina. “This facility isn’t possible without strong partnerships and local support. I want to thank the Salina community for their continued support and use of the service; Salina airport for their partnerships and support; the state of Kansas, what an awesome place to live and work, and the SkyWest team, and those overseeing this hangar facility project to make it a success. We’re very excited to get this facility staffed and continue to be a partner in Salina and across the state of Kansas.”

Salina is one of the communities helping carry forward Kansas’ strong aviation legacy, Moran said.

“This is a community that works together for the good of the community,” he said. “Salina has done a tremendous job of supporting the American dream while keeping aviation and aerospace at the center of its identity. We know who we are, and we are proud of it. Thanks to Chip for helping expand that presence in Kansas.”

SkyWest’s move is the latest in a long list of developments in Salina and Saline County in the past six to seven years, said Mitch Robinson, executive director of the Salina Community Economic Development Organization.

In 40 total years of working in economic development, Robinson said he’s never seen this much success in this little of time. “I think we’re on a roll. There’s enough for all of us to be proud and happy,” he said after the late-morning celebration.

Many members of the airport audience moved on to a groundbreaking of the new Salina Family Health clinic at Ohio and Edison; then a ribbon cutting at General Atomics, a 4,000 square foot floor in the Hoffman Building at the corner of Santa Fe and Iron avenues downtown. The space will be used for technical writing connected to the aviation industry.

“A momentum has developed that could continue for some time,” Robinson said. “Extremely positive things are going on in Salina and Saline County.”

SkyWest operates United Express at SLN that makes daily roundtrip flights from Salina to Houston, Denver and Chicago. The St. George, UT-based airline also serves Hays, Garden City, Dodge City and Liberal in western Kansas.

The SkyWest maintenance center in Salina will serve all those Essential Air Service communities

Among those at the ribbon cutting was Alysia Starkey, PhD, CEO and Dean of the Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus, Tysen Pina, aviation department head, teachers and students from the aircraft maintenance program, fleet maintainers and professional pilot instructors.

SkyWest is another valued industry partner, and K-State Salina aims to help meet the airline’s needs. “They will need people from multiple levels, and we can serve them at all levels,” Pina said. Credit goes to local leaders, he said. “It’s amazing the way the Chamber of Commerce, airport authority, and the local government worked together to grow Salina,” “When commerce grows within a local community, the need for more employment and the need for more education grows. SkyWest is another home run that the Salina community has hit.”

Several years of effort was required to land a visit from SkyWest in 2018, said Don Boos, Salina Airport Authority’s board chairman. “It’s a great day for Salina. We owe our gratitude to those who served before us, especially those who had the vision and strength to take on the task of converting the former (Schilling) Air Force base into the community economic engine that it is today,” he said. “It is truly rare to find a community where all of the stakeholders are aligned, and there is a special relationship with K-State. It truly is a recipe for success, and the effort is bearing fruit. The future begins right now.”

Aviation enjoys a rich history in Kansas, said Joshua Jefferson, deputy secretary for business development at the Kansas Department of Commerce. “It’s the future as well,” he said. “The world’s largest airline will keep its planes flying. We promise to work our tail-fins off and grow aviation and aerospace.”

SkyWest was dubbed the world’s largest regional air carrier in a Dec. 22 press release.

“Salina has been an incredible piece of Kansas’ success story,” Jefferson said.  

Many improvements to the city’s and Saline County’s economic development were years in the making. “I have a hard time keeping track of the list,” said J.R. Claeys, a former state senator in Kansas who is currently a political appointee with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Support that helped SkyWest establish operations in Hangar 600 stemmed from a broader hangar development effort led by former Executive Director Tim Rogers and J.R. Claeys. Pieter Miller later built on that work to help support SkyWest’s use of the hangar. “Part of that support came through the Department of Commerce. They did great work on this,” Claeys said. “(Lt. Gov.) David Toland and Joshua Jefferson have been great partners.”

Claeys admires Salina’s reputation. “I think anybody who has lived here and is from here knows there is a lot of hidden potential. We are not the braggiest people in Salina. That’s also what makes us so attractive for investment. It’s the people, the workers, the students and the pipeline of workforces we’re developing,” he said. “The culture of what’s happening in west Salina across the Interstate, is continually growing the next thing, based on what we have here already. When you can customize the training, whether it be the AIM Center or Salina Tech, businesses are going to respond to that.”

And don’t forget the facilities, Claeys said. “The new facilities that are going to be built out, because of the work in the Legislature — Tim Roger’s vision (retired from the SAA in 2024) and now Pieter Miller’s — they’re developing the plan,” he said.

Current economic development events are “the culmination of a lot of work that the Airport Authority put into it,” said 24th District Sen. Scott Hill, R- Abilene, and now it’s showing up.

“I think (Salina’s) maybe coming of age. There’s a lot of resources at the airport, space resources,” he said. “It was kind of like discovering a gem that exists right in the middle of Kansas. This isn’t the end. There’s a lot going on, and there is a lot yet to be done, too.”