The Jake Arner Memorial Airport was built in 1964. It was named after Jacob Arner, who was one of the first members of the Carbon County Airport Authority, in 1977 - a year after his death.

Paul Smith, chairman of the Airport Authority and manager of the airport, said the airport is doing well. It houses Arner Flying Service, which offers flight training and charter service for packages or people, and Falcon Air, which is an aircraft repair shop that operates out of the T-hangars. The airport also is the home of the area’s medical helicopter owned by Geisinger and St. Luke’s health networks.

Rick Grabosky, a flight nurse on the medical helicopter, said the airport is a central location to everywhere they need to go.

“It works well,” he said.

They get about 75 to 95 calls per month, Grabosky said.

“It’s been steady for the last two years,” he said.

The airport is county owned, but Smith said they get “a very small amount of money from the county.” For the most part, the airport generates its own income from fuel sales and aircraft storage rental space.

It has hard surface tie-downs and hangars for aircraft storage. A hard surface spot is $66.30 per month.

There are three T-hangars with 10 bays in each hangar. The standard bay is $255 per month. An end unit is $280.50 per month, and community hangar space is based on the size of the aircraft. Smith says he has a waiting list for the hangar space.

The airport is also busy with planes flying in and out.

“It’s not unusual for us to have 40 or 50 takeoffs and landings per day,” Smith said.

To be clear, that’s not 40 to 50 planes. Flight schools use the airport for students to practice their touchdowns and takeoffs. In all, the airport has about nine planes come in for a landing each day.

Some of the planes are owned by businesses by both large chain stores and smaller businesses. Smith said they fly in with executives.

“An airport is huge for businesses,” Smith said, and it brings in business.

Some of planes are flown by private pilots coming in from places such as Florida, South Carolina and Virginia. They are going to fun destinations, like the airport near the beach in Ocean City, Maryland or to Maine for lobster, Smith said.

“Aviation opens up all that stuff,” he said. “There’s a famous saying that if you have a mile of highway, you get a mile down the road. If you have a mile of runway, you can go anywhere.”