BEND, OR -- While air traffic is shut down at the airport in Redmond for runway construction, business at the Bend Municipal Airport has taken off. Bend Airport Manager Gary Judd tells KBND News, “We’ve had a real increase in the corporate aircraft coming and going. The small jets, those type of things. Federal Express and UPS have both moved their operations down here so we’ve picked up three or four aircraft to that.” 

He says hangar space and tie-downs were already limited in Bend. Many private pilots pre-arranged to move their planes to the Bend Airport prior to the closure. “These are people who are picking up, but a lot of them are transients that would normally be going into Redmond just bringing people in and dropping them off. They don’t have an alternative right now so they’re going to be bringing them in to Bend until Redmond gets opened up again.” Among the new aircraft at the Bend Airport is a huge Chinook military helicopter.

Roberts Field is scheduled to reopen in about three weeks.