St. George • After getting $15 million last year to help fund the construction of a new control tower, St. George officials are now asking the state to cough up even more for the expansion of the city’s airport.
City officials pitched state lawmakers on the Transportation and Infrastructure Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday, asking for another $20 million to help finance the project that would more than double the size of the current 35,000 square-foot terminal at the St. George Regional Airport.
The proposed $100 million expansion would add four second-floor gates to the terminal’s three existing ground-floor gates, along with more baggage, security and ticketing areas, all aimed at accommodating growing passenger demand and luring more commercial air carriers to the airport.
The city is prepared to spend $25 million of its own money on the expansion, and hopes to raise the balance required for the project with federal grants, transient room tax funds from Washington County and an unspecified amount from St. George-headquartered SkyWest, the nation’s largest regional carrier.
Keeping pace with growth
(Mark Eddington | The Salt Lake Tribune) St. George Mayor Jimmie Hughes, center, speaks with city manager John Willis, right, and city economic development director Chad Thomas during a beam-signing ceremony for a new airport control tower for the St. George Regional Airport on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2026.
Airport manager Dustin Warren and Sean Guzman, St. George’s government affairs director, said terminal expansion is critical for the airport to keep pace with the area’s growth and surging passenger numbers.
“Southern Utah is growing at quite an alarming rate, and we need to expand the terminal capacity to meet the growing demand,” Warren told lawmakers. “This reduces congestion and supports sustained growth.”
Since relocating in 2011 from its original location overlooking the city to its current site about 11 miles south of downtown, the airport has seen passenger numbers increase by nearly 400%. According to Warren, the airport served 431,607 passengers in 2025, which represents a 35% jump from the 318,532 who used the facility the previous year. The airport expects to see between 474,000 and 537,000 passengers this year.
Supporters of the expansion noted that the airport is projected to generate nearly $23 million in tax revenues this year, the largest chunk of which, $5.8 million, would go to the state.
Those revenues could soar to nearly $46 million by 2035, $6.8 million of which would go into the state’s coffers, which Warren said would more than offset the state’s contribution and help it recoup its investment.
Rep. Calvin Roberts, R-Draper, said those revenues don’t account for the increased sales tax, transient room taxes and overall economic impact a larger airport and more passengers would bring to the state.
“So as an economic driver for not only the southwest region, but for the state in general, this is very significant,” he said. “This is a great investment.”
Sen. Kathleen Riebe, D-Cottonwood Heights, expressed reservations about paying for airports with state money.
“This sounds like a great project, but we also are dealing with a lot of lost revenue this year,” she said. “I’m just going to pump the brakes on this a little bit and say that as a Salt Lake County resident, I’m a little cautious.”
‘A big deal’
(City of St. George) A rending of a new air traffic control tower at St. George Regional Airport.
St. George’s airport is having a banner year in other ways besides soaring passenger counts, according to city officials. The city broke ground in August on an 80-foot-tall airport control tower, which should make its debut in 2027. Once it is completed, flights at the airport will be handled locally rather than by FAA staff out of Los Angeles International Airport.
St. George City Council member Steve Kemp remembers being on a flight from Salt Lake City enroute to St. George a year ago and having to wait 45 minutes for Los Angeles controllers to clear the aircraft to land.
“This tower will increase the safety between general aviation and commercial aviation tenfold,” he said.
Kemp joined St. George Mayor Jimmie Hughes and other city and airport officials at a beam-signing ceremony this week to celebrate the construction of the control tower, which thus far is proceeding ahead of schedule. Officials and well-wishers signed their names on the beam, which will be used in the construction of the tower’s cab, the operational “cockpit” of the control tower, where controllers physically sit and direct traffic.
City officials said once it is completed, St. George would be the first airport in Utah, outside the Wasatch Front, to feature a control tower.
“What’s happening here with the tower and then the airport expansion is a big deal for St. George and southern Utah as a whole,” Hughes said. “I can’t think of a more important project in the southern Utah region that will have more of an economic impact than what we are trying to get done at this airport.”
St. George’s airport is Utah’s third busiest, trailing only Salt Lake City International and Provo airports.