Thomas County Airport a big draw for pilots

THEDFORD, Neb. (KOLN) - The airport that serves Thedford and the surrounding area was honored as the Airport of the Year in 2022, and it continues to serve pilots with state-of-the-art facilities in the Sandhills.

Jack Johnston is the Airport Manager and is also on the Thomas County Airport Authority Board. “When he was still in office, President Trump turned loose about a billion dollars in funding for rural airport upgrades,” Johnston said. “I don’t know how it was divided up among the states, but it was divided up. We got some of the money, and maybe about half of the total that the state received. We were able to tear up our asphalt runway, and we were able to make some hard surface roads to and from the airport.” Johnston added some photos he took helped convince officials of the need Thedford had for upgrades. “I had four jets on the ramp at one time, and the old ramp was pretty small,” Johnston said. “I get several King Air planes in here, and I took a picture of them coming down the taxi way, which before was only 25 feet wide. Now our ramp is over twice the size it used to be, and they let us go up to 35 feet for the taxi way.”

With the funding, the Thomas County Airport was able to get rid of what were known as “hammerhead” turn arounds. “Jet traffic doesn’t pull out on those, because if they don’t get turned around right, there’s nothing they can do about it,” Johnston said. “The funding allowed us to put in what they call “teacup” turnarounds, and that is great for all aircraft.”

Johnston said he gets calls from pilots all over the country about the airport. “They just say, wow, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Johnston said. The fact that the airport is located in the Sandhills makes the approach for pilots memorable. “They often don’t know where the town is, because on the approach they are completely on the runway, and the town itself is situated a little bit below the runway.” The fuel offered at the runway is a big draw for pilots traveling across the country. “We used to have just 100 low-lead for piston aircraft,” Johnston said. “But with all of the jet aircraft coming through here, they always wondered if we had Jet A. After the airport expansion, we put in Jet A. Our board and I, we really want to continue to grow and expand.”

“It’s amazing how many people we get who are just traveling through,” Johnston said. “We do get a lot of helicopters that are being ferried from east to west or west to east. This airport is 65 miles from any other airport that has the ability for a jet to land and has lights.” The Thomas County Airport has hundreds of takeoffs and landings a year, and in 2022, the airport received the designation of being the Airport of the Year. “We are really proud of our airport,” Johnston said.