Green Aviation Coalition Funding

Upper Michigan has more money to try to go green with aviation.

The U.P. Green Aviation Coalition has received about $600,000 to keep the group going for another year.

The group recently completed its first year together.

Sawyer International Airport, the Houghton County Memorial Airport and the delta county airport are part of it.

The coalition brings the private and public sectors together to create new jobs.

Vikki Kulju of the Green Aviation Coalition says the group’s greatest success in its first year was connecting companies like Boeing and Lockheed Martin with U.P. businesses.

The coalition will use its funding for more projects like those.

One of the members says the coalition would not have been possible as recently as five years ago.

But many U.P. airports have a great deal in common.

Kelly Smith, assistant manager of the Delta County Airport, says the three airports that are currently part of the coalition all host large industrial parks that have sometimes had problems attracting tenants, and the coalition may help with that.

The $600,000 comes from the U.S. Small Business Administration, by way of Michigan Works!.

The SBA money comes from a pilot program created last year called ‘Innovative Economies’.