SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (Dakota News Now) – Both the Sioux Falls and Rapid City Regional Airports are bursting at the seams. Each year, the airports set new records for the number of passengers moving through their facilities.
With each eyeing expansion soon and requesting more funds to fully build out their projects, Governor Larry Rhoden has proposed loans to each.
Dirt is already moving in Sioux Falls as it looks to add more gates and concourse space to handle more passengers. Rapid City is planning a similar expansion.
Each airport can build a base expansion, but they said they need more funding to build everything. Over the past couple of years, each has gone to the South Dakota Legislature to seek additional funding, with varying success.
MORE: Sioux Falls Regional Airport breaks ground on new concourse
On Friday, Governor Larry Rhoden announced that he will be proposing $15 million loans for each airport to help with construction. These would be interest-free and paid back over a 20-year timeframe.
Rhoden said if nothing is done to help each airport fully prepare for future capacity and help show that South Dakota is open to business, it could stunt the growth that each has worked so hard for.
“Every year since [the pandemic]we’ve broken record after record. In fact, year-to-date, Rapid City airport arrivals are up 30 percent, and Sioux Falls arrivals in that same time period are up over 25 percent. Those are some staggering increases in just a six-year period,” Rhoden said.
The funds would come from money originally set aside for career housing in the state. $200 million was originally funded to support housing infrastructure, with $100 million grants that were quickly invested. The other $100 million was set up as funding for loans, with about $65 million remaining.
For each airport to be able to use some of that funding, it would need to be moved into the state’s Revolving Economic Development and Initiative fund, or REDI fund.
Rhoden said that funding has helped build housing infrastructure in the state, but with few applicants applying for loans, it makes sense to open it up for additional economic stimulus opportunities.
“We’ve made tremendous progress in available career housing across South Dakota. Now is the time for these dollars to be used to solve other problems. So, we’re moving the remaining dollars in the housing infrastructure fund into the REDI fund,” Rhoden said.
Rhoden said the funding approach is similar to the one that supported the Douglas School District during the 2025 legislative session, and said those move makes sure that no additional cost is passed on to taxpayers.
It also follows a similar loan proposal from the City of Sioux Falls to its regional airport, where an interest-free loan will be paid back over a set amount of time.
MORE: Sioux Falls City Council hopes for joint state investment in airport
Sioux Falls Regional Airport Authority Chair Blake Curd said this effort from Sioux Falls and South Dakota will help the region prepare for future growth, and help advertise the state as one open for business by showing it can and will invest in critical infrastructure.
“Seeing it now come up out of the ground and come to fruition is really an exciting time to be here. We know that this isn’t just a single generational effort. This is a multi-generational change for air travel into this area of the world,” Curd said.
Rhoden’s proposal will need approval from the South Dakota Legislature, running into a similar roadblock that the airports have faced in the past. But he said with Sioux Falls and Rapid City lawmakers on board, it will help bring the rest of the state along with the proposal.
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