Bend Municipal Airport, Oregon’s third-busiest airport, is expected to have a finished air traffic control tower in early 2026. Construction crews began building the tower in August 2024. As of this month, Tracy Williams, airport manager, says that the project is about 80% complete. To finish the project, the road needs to be paved, fencing installed, exterior finalized and interior equipment installed. Williams expects that the tower should be “substantially complete by February 2026.”
The airport plans to staff the new tower with five Federal Aviation Administration controllers and one manager, even as the nation faces a shortage of air traffic controllers. Williams says recruiting for these positions will begin in “the next several months.”
Tower project costs nearly $15 million
To date, the total cost for the tower is about $15 million. This includes “site selection, environmental assessment, design, construction and contract management,” says Williams.
The tower’s financing comes from a mix of sources. Back in 2022, the City of Bend received a significant portion of funding when Connect Oregon awarded an $4.8 million grant to cover the design and construction costs. As the largest grant in that funding cycle, it provided the critical boost this long-awaited tower needed to move forward. The rest of the funding comes from federal grants, state grants and airport revenue.
The City of Bend said the ATCT project has three main parts: a 115-foot air traffic control tower with a rotating beacon, antennas, and lightning rods; an access road with parking, utilities, and security fencing; and some weather sensors on a pole.
Addressing safety concerns
Right now, the airport handles over 140,000 takeoffs and landings every year, making it the only one among Oregon’s top five busiest airports that doesn’t have an air traffic control tower.
“The lack of an ATCT serving the airport fosters an extremely difficult operating environment for arriving and departing aircraft. The construction of an ATCT would organize the flow of traffic and absolutely facilitate safer, more efficient aircraft operations,” explains Kevin Miller, air traffic specialist for Seattle’s air route traffic control center.
According to the City of Bend, the control tower should cut down on airspace conflicts with nearby airports in Redmond, Prineville and Madras. The tower will “provide safe separation of aircraft by sequencing the take-offs and landings,” says Williams. “During the hours that the tower is open, all aircraft taking off or landing will be required to be in 2-way radio communication with air traffic controllers. Air traffic services are expected sunrise to sunset.”
Bend Municipal Airport sits about eight miles northeast of downtown and serves as a key hub for aviation in the region. It’s home to more than 200 aircraft, handles business and charter flights, flight training, aircraft manufacturing companies like Epic Aircraft, and provides crucial emergency services including air ambulance and wildfire response.
This article appears in the Source September 11, 2025.
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