WINONA, Minn. — The City Council voted 6-0 to award a 10-year contract to manage the municipal airport to a Wisconsin company that has been flying in and out o Winona 16 years. The company, Heartland Aviation, operates luxury jet charters out of Eau Claire, and maintains an Eau Claire service base. The company also operates corporate flights from Rochester and has a flight school at RST. At Winona’s Max Conrad Field in Goodview, Heartland will replace B2W, which has had the management contract for 30 years. This is how management proposals ranked on a 100-point scale considered by a City Council advisory committee:
> Heartland Aviation: 91.
> Fountain Aviation: 74.
> B2W: 55.
> AircraftMD: 54.
> Conrad Aviation: 49.
The deal marks an end of an era for popular Winona aviator George Bolon, whose B2W has been what’s known as the “fixed-based operator” since the 1990s. Bolon, who is 85 years old, has been a continuing link to the legacy of pioneer Winona aviator Max Conrad after whom the airport was named in 1948 when it was founded. Conrad died in 1979.
Welcome to Winona. Main building dating to era when the city had scheduled air service.
Airport profile
Max Conrad Field has a primary asphalt runway of 5,600 feet. The airport averages 30 aircraft operations a day: 92% general aviation, 8% air taxi. Thirty aircraft based at the airport: 26 single-engine, two multi-engine, one jet, and one glider. The airport offers fueling, major airframe and major engine serivce. There has been scheduled commercial airline service since 1970s.