FAA Requests $464,000 Update to Lake Chelan Airport Layout Plan, Stalling Projects

The Federal Aviation Administration has requested an update to the Lake Chelan Airport layout plan, the blueprint for the airport's planned development and a component of its 2021 master plan. The update is expected to cost approximately $464,000.

Lake Chelan Airport is co-owned and operated by the city of Chelan and the Chelan Douglas Regional Port Authority. Chelan city administrator Laura McAloon spoke about the request at the port authority's Oct. 27 board meeting. She said the work is not a replacement of the master plan but an update and validation of the data that was gathered, and that generating growth and growing commercial activity at the airport is the main driving factor behind updating the layout plan.

Airport activity mirrors tourism in the city, peaking in June and declining during the winter. At the same meeting, interim airport operations manager Todd Higley said summer 2026 was a "down year" because of smoke from the Little Giant Fire.

An airport layout plan is the document federal officials use to judge whether proposed construction fits an airport's approved development. When the FAA asks for a refresh, projects that depend on that approval generally wait until the revised plan is accepted. For a smaller airport with two public owners, the update cost has to be split or funded through the owners' usual channels, which adds a coordination step before any growth project can move.

The seasonal pattern described at the meeting shows why the owners frame the update around commercial growth. An airport whose traffic follows the tourist calendar has a short window in which to show demand, and a smoke-affected summer narrows that window further. Validating the underlying data is therefore partly about giving the next set of projects a defensible baseline.

The next milestones are the owners' decisions on how the roughly $464,000 is funded and when the FAA accepts the updated plan.