The Helena Regional Airport secured a little more than a million dollars in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation to help attract new service to Arizona.
As part of the federal department's Small Community Air Service Development Program, the about $1 million will be packaged with local fundraising dollars to create an incentive package intended to woo an airline into starting a route from Helena's airport to Phoenix.
According to Airport Director Jeff Wadekamper, some of the money will be spent on marketing of the new route. Other dollars from the new incentive package could be spent on minor terminal upgrades, most likely at the ticketing windows.