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Justin Brady: I’m Justin Brady, and with big signs come big changes. There is made news. I just read it today, actually, before having you on that you have an enormous sign in a very famous landmark now here in Iowa. On the Des Moines International Airport. We’re going to talk about that briefly, but we’re going to talk about all the big changes, and they are big coming for 2025 at the airport. Iowa’s biggest airport. Of course, we’re joined by Kevin Foley, the executive director and chief and big cheese. Of the Des Moines airport for how long now? How long have you been there? And also welcome to the studio.

Kevin Foley: Well, thank you. Thank you for having me on. And, uh, I’ve been executive director, uh, February 14th will be 11 years. Uh, prior to that, of course, I was the assistant executive director for three years, a little over three years, and then had a number of other positions. But I’ve been at the airport now for, um, June will be 16 years.

Justin Brady: so we’re going to talk about all the changes coming and I have a lot of stuff because there’s a lot of interesting information. Um, but first, can I, can I brag on you just for a second? I travel a lot. And it’s absolutely stunning how well you have done at the Des Moines International Airport. The infrastructure hasn’t really been, you guys haven’t had that much of a budget to upgrade that in a long time. But despite that, I have seen newer airports that have worse infrastructure than the Des Moines Airport. So, you know, well done. Um, I know how hard you guys work to get new airlines in here to get more direct routes. I don’t think most people will brag on you. I certainly know you will not. But I’ll do it. Well, you know, show appreciation to your local Des Moines airport. Kevin and his team have been doing a rock star job. It’s unbelievable. So thank you. That being said, um, one of the issues I feel like here, we’re going to, we’re going to talk about the airport changes, but real quick, I want to touch on this, the ATC stuff. Like I feel like in Iowa, we, we do have flyover traffic. So I’m not going to ask you about the, the Reagan incident, cause obviously. Even if you knew about it, you probably couldn’t comment on it anyway. Um, but In flyover country, do we have these kind of ATC issues here? I know that’s federal, but do we have ATC hiring challenges here in Iowa, or is that kind of a non issue? Because Iowa has plenty of access to good talent.

Kevin Foley: I think there’s hiring issues. I don’t care what industry you’re talking about. There’s hiring issues in every industry. Um, and so all that hiring for air traffic control is, is done by the FAA and those individuals who work in the tower or or who, um, work in, in Traikon, with the, the, the, the, the Um, radar systems that, that where they, they’re looking at a screen all day, um, they bid those jobs. I mean, they actually decide where they want to be. Now, a lot of them want to go into larger areas, heavier traffic where the stress load is much, much heavier. But of course, the pay is greater there as well if you get into an LAX or a JFK. Uh, if you stay here in Des Moines, there are periods of sheer, sheer panic here simply because of the amount of traffic that we encounter. We have peak periods and that’s the way most of aviation functions is like a flock of geese. They all come in at the same time and they all leave at the same time. All that said, the stress load here in Des Moines is, is, is less, but the hiring or the struggle for that hiring, um, it’s, it’s a national issue and Des Moines seems to do fairly well in keeping the controllers that we have in our air traffic control tower.

Justin Brady: So we’re keeping um, are we doing a lot of overtime in Iowa? Are we doing a ton of overtime in Iowa for air traffic controllers?

Kevin Foley: Well, I don’t track that. I’m sure we are, um, but, but I don’t track that, nor do I have that data,

Justin Brady: Right, and it’s not even your purview. There’s not very little you can do about it. It’s federally controlled, like you said.

Kevin Foley: Exactly. Uh, once an aircraft breaks ground, um, they’re 100 percent in the FAA airspace, and we have very little, if anything, to say about that.

Justin Brady: Do we have like, I think Chicago area and like central, like Illinois kind of has two different ATC models. They have the air traffic controllers that are guiding traffic into O’Hare. Then they also have a satellite office of air traffic controllers that are guiding traffic around the state and near O’Hare. There’s like this weird two tier system. Is that just because they have a sheer crazy volume of traffic or do we have a model similar in Iowa? Because we are flyover country. We get a ton of people coming over our state.

Kevin Foley: Now, we do have the same system. So within, within about five miles of, of the airport, uh, the tower is controlling that traffic, and then they hand it off, uh, to a secondary, it’s, it’s approach and departure, Uh, maybe out to 10 to 15 miles, maybe even out to 20 miles that they will handle it. And then after that point, it goes to what’s called center to a center and, um, that he could be in Omaha, it could be up in Minneapolis, um, and they take over and it’s, that’s the in route portion of the flight than that. that you’re under radar control with them. If you are on an, on an instrument flight plan, you got to remember there’s a lot of planes out there on a day like today that are flying, uh, just visually by without any instrumentation or, or limited, uh, IFR

Justin Brady: or licensure for like, uh, tool, they, what do they call it, instrument trained and then site trained or something, there are different tiers that I don’t

Kevin Foley: versus VFR.

Justin Brady: Oh, there’s the fancy term.

Kevin Foley: Instrument flight rules versus visual flight rules,

Justin Brady: So, the, the people who aren’t in the Des Moines airport that aren’t handling the five miles out, are they officed in the same tower or are they officed somewhere else?

Kevin Foley: No, they’re in the same tower. They’re, they’re down at the bottom of the tower right now, the same

Justin Brady: doesn’t matter if they can see, obviously, because they’re too far out, they can’t see them anyway, so they’re officed.

Kevin Foley: on a screen, they’re looking at a radar screen and, uh, no windows in that facility. Um, um, so, uh, yeah, but they’re, they’re on the first floor versus. Air traffic control for the tower itself for right here at the airport itself is at the very top

Justin Brady: I’ve noticed, and maybe this is just me, because we’re gonna, we’re gonna jump into 2025 changes, you mentioned windows, because you’re gonna have a lot of them in the new airport. Uh, but I’ve noticed that some pilots seem to, like, almost forget that the Des Moines airport is so close. And it’s just, like, me noticing things as a frequent traveler. Some people start their descent, everything’s normal. But some pilots are almost like, Oh my gosh, it’s already here, I should probably start descending. Is this just a, uh, uh, error? Is this just like a weather thing? Or does the Des Moines airport kind of sneak up quickly on people?

Kevin Foley: No, so on a commercial flight, um, they know exactly where they are. But sometimes they’re asked to hold altitude for various reasons. There could be crossing traffic below them, uh, and so. Uh, ATC will ask them to hold their altitude and then, and then it’s a little more rapid descent. Um, but certainly all of the airlines have, have requirements where they have to be in an established approach, uh, so far out. And I forget what that limit is, but so far out when, and when I say established, in other words, the airspeed sets, the flaps are set. The gears down and we’re ready to land this airplane quite a ways away from the airport. And, and that’s the established

Justin Brady: Sure, so it’s just a matter of what ATC’s telling them to keep their altitude at. Big changes at the airport 2025. And I definitely want to get into those. What are the big major changes at the Des Moines International Airport for people that don’t live in Des Moines? Because they, you know, they like to Google. I actually see the traffic on our website. People hitting your older interview people looking for answers. So what are the big changes at the Des Moines International Airport in 2025 that people all around the state coming in for flights should be aware of before they come?

Kevin Foley: Well, we do a lot of things to make the passenger experience improved, um, as best we can. So the biggest change then that’s coming in 2025 and, and will come fairly early here in 2025 is the opening of the, of the parking garage extension, which is right, right. Um, 1100 spaces will open up, uh, so that’ll give us additional long term parking and some additional hourly parking or what we call short term parking, uh, as well. Uh, we’re the only entity that can provide that very close in parking right on airport property. Um, again, that will open, uh, we’re going to get part of it open for spring break. Spring break coming up here in March, um, is our heaviest. Automobile parking demand, not our heaviest passenger traffic, but it’s our heaviest automobile parking demand. Everybody’s leaving Iowa. They’re going someplace warm during spring break. Uh, and so, and there’s a lot of Colleges, um, um, business kind of slows down during spring break. There’s a lot of vacationing going on at that time. So in the northern tier of states, everybody’s going south. They’re going someplace warm. And so it’s all outflow and they’re driving to the airport and

Justin Brady: Oh, interesting.

Kevin Foley: versus, versus, um, during. You know, normal periods, um, we have business coming in, people fly into, I mean, here’s a stat, it’s, it’s a relatively old statistic, um, but 47 percent of our passenger traffic are people coming into Des Moines to do, for leisure purposes or for business. purposes, and then flying back out of Des Moines, going back to their home base. Um, so we get tunnel vision, and we think that all of the passengers coming in and out of the airport are local passengers. In other words, they’re Iowans. And that’s not the case. We have people coming in to do business within the state of Iowa and then flying back out.

Justin Brady: And that is kind of interesting that you bring that up. There are some questions I have, uh, with guests coming into the state. Most people don’t think of airports in two. I’m sure there are more, but I think of them in two major tiers. Destination airports and connection airports. So Chicago O. R. D. O. Hair and then Denver. Of course, they’re handled. Those would be United hubs that are handling connections. And then, but obviously some destination traffic. Des Moines, unless it’s a smaller plane, like a private plane, is not a connection airport, it’s a destination airport. So, does that change, because we’re going to move into the overall design of the airport and stuff, but does that change how you create this airport? How we do the changes, like the infrastructure, the logistics, does that dynamically change how you think about that?

Kevin Foley: It does. Um, so, and you’re absolutely right, we are what’s called in an origination and destination airport, O& D. Um, consequently, because we have no transfer passengers transferring on to another flight, we have very little dwell time within our terminal. And without that dwell time, there’s less need for, uh, um, concessions.

Justin Brady: vendors and

Kevin Foley: Yeah, so, so you don’t see a lot of clothing vendors or things like that because people just simply don’t have time to shop. And if you think about how, how most all of us travel. Um, what I, what I would really like to do is show up about a half hour before my flight, park my car, get into the terminal, have time to grab a sandwich quick and then get on the plane and leave. Um, that’s, that’s not possible today. I mean, you know, the, the, uh, recommendation from TSA and, and from us as well is that you need to be at the airport minimally an hour and a half before your departure. Um, remember. The doors on the jet bridge, the airlines will close those doors at least 10 minutes before departure. And once those doors are closed, they don’t open them again for any reason. Uh, so, um, you know, you really need to start paying attention to your boarding time and be at the airport about an hour and a half before boarding starts.

Justin Brady: Yeah. Don’t go by departure time. Go by boarding time. Those are different.

Kevin Foley: Um, and there can be, you know, any, any type of delay and it can, it can be, it could be on floor. You could run into an accident on floor that would cause delay. So any type of delay is what we’re trying of the passenger is what we’re trying to avoid. Um, but they happen, they occur. So, so

Justin Brady: And so when you say an hour and a half early, you’re saying, be there an hour and a half plan on being there an hour and a half early because We know that sometimes the TSA can get backed up, you know, a couple people call in sick, there’s a wreck. So plan on being an hour and a half early to anticipate the fact that things never go smooth. Des Moines is one of the easiest traffic cities probably on Earth, but even we’re not perfect. People get in wrecks, do dumb things, and snags happen. You, you talk about people coming in at death, you called it origination destination airport or something like that. I love how there’s terms for everything that obviously one of the things that people don’t think about that impacts their travel. You mentioned parking is the fact that there is a lot of parking right by the terminal ultra premium spots that are like right there. By the way, the little led guidance system that gets you to an open spot. If no one’s ever seen this, yeah. You’ve never parked in the covered garage, like right next to there. It is so cool. It tells you where the spots are. It’s insane. So that’s really cool. But there are all these premium spots right by the airport that are taken up by all the rental car things, which is fine. Is there any plan to move those a little further away so that people in Iowans have like a shot at like the nicer spots?

Kevin Foley: Yes, and we have minimized the amount of rental car parking around the terminal already. But under construction, as we speak, is a customer service building down on the south side of the airport and the rental car counters will be moved. So all the parking, um, and there’s actually what we call a, uh, a QTA. It’s a quick turn facility where the rental cars, um, there’s five car washes in there and six maintenance bases. And that’s where they turn their vehicles. They go down and fuel them, wash them. Um, if they, they can do oil changes there, quick oil change, those types of things, light maintenance. Um, and so it’ll be right next to that quick turn facility and, you know, if you think again about how you travel, uh, one of the nicest compliments that we get frequently here in Des Moines for somebody flying in is, I love it, the counters are right there on the terminal. I, I, I walk off the plane, it’s a one minute walk. I walk to the rental car counter. I get in my rental car and I walk out the door and it’s parked right there and I’m gone. That’s what everybody would like. Uh, the rental car companies don’t really want us to bus their passengers. We don’t want to bus their passengers. But it’s become, you know, a point where we don’t have any choice here. We’re busy enough and I’m growing enough. We’re going to have to start functioning that way.

Justin Brady: And there are delays that people aren’t aware of. They don’t see the delays that they’re not aware of because, like you said, the, the, the rental car thing is there. You walk right out. The car is there. They don’t see the delays caused when things are busy and they have to take the cars off site to wash them. They don’t see those delays and they just see that the walk was short. But for anybody who parks at Grey Lot, that’s usually where I park like all the time is Grey Lot. You, you, which is super far away, but I know the trick that no one, uh, you know, few people know, which is those buses are so stinking fast. I don’t, I can’t tell you the time I ever waited more than five minutes. I know it could be up to 15 minutes sometimes. But they’re just so stinking fast. I go in there, I hit the buzzer, I say I’m ready to go because there’s a sign that says to do that. And then they are there really, really quick and the ride in is fast, the ride out when you arrive is really fast. It seems like there are so many opportunities to hop on a bus. I used to use a different parking service and I stopped using that because your gray lot drivers are so fast and so it’s just so convenient. I would wonder if you’d do a stopwatch to see that like time versus getting to gray lot and walking right over to the parking lot. I would assume walking right next door is a little faster, but I don’t know if it’s by much. So consolidating everything offsite, I think will give, it’ll probably open up a lot of parking for Iowans coming that want to park there, I’m assuming.

Kevin Foley: Well, it’ll open up. There’s about 180 spots in the south garage that are used by the rental car companies, and then there’s a couple surface slots that each of them have about 100 spaces in. So, maybe not quite as much as you think it’s going to because, again, we have eliminated most of that. Um, but to your point, you can track our shuttle buses with, uh, there’s an app that you can actually watch and see where the shuttle bus is. And by contract, um, the, the, the parking operator has to have a shuttle bus in front of the terminal that’s dropping off and picking up every 10 minutes.

Justin Brady: Oh, wow, really?

Kevin Foley: they run

Justin Brady: that makes sense. That’s why it’s so fast.

Kevin Foley: we can track it, uh, both, there’s a GPS in the bus, but then we can track it by camera, and then our system tracks it as well. So we know, uh, hey, if they’re not living up to that 10 minute wait time, um, then we’ve got problems.

Justin Brady: So what are some of the other tactical changes that passengers need to be aware of this year? Are there gonna be interruptions? Are there going to be like, um, you know, term like parking garages that are closed? Anything that it’s like, hey, FYI, keep this in the back of your mind when you come through 2025 because there are going to be a lot of changes that are going to be happening quickly.

Kevin Foley: So, first of all, we’ll minimize the impact to passengers as best we can, uh, keep the signage in front of them, um, um, and those types of things, but most of the changes that are going to fill, uh, are going to be positive changes, and by that I mean the garage will open up, there’ll be more parking, to your point, it’s premium parking, it’s our most expensive parking, but it seems like that’s where our largest demand is, and so that will be opening up here, um, um, by, Early summer of 2025, it’ll be 100 percent open. At the same time, we still have the terminal under construction, building a new terminal that will open very late in 2026 or early in 2027, it’ll be operational.

Justin Brady: Sounds fast, actually.

Kevin Foley: So there’s going to be some outside disruptions because of that construction. And again, that’s one of those things we don’t want delay. And so we will minimize any, any of that disruption as best we can for the passengers. Um, but there are times and things that happen that we just can’t avoid. Um, so, um, Just be aware of a lot of construction, a lot of moving parts going on right now in Des Moines, and at the airport, and, uh, um, again, an hour and a half before, before your boarding, be there about an hour and a half before your boarding, so that if anything does disrupt, uh, it doesn’t delay you or cause you to miss a flight.

Justin Brady: And I will say this isn’t advice, listen to Kevin, everybody, but I showed up, I was running like really late to the fact that I actually like it was bad planning on my, I’ve never run late to a flight in my life. The whole run thing to the airport, never done it on connections. I’ve done it. Things that are out of my control. But, um, I was running, like, really late, and I think I left my house a half an hour before boarding time. I live on the east side. So I was, like, ultra panicking. I told my wife to go without me. I ended up taking a separate car. Parked in, um, I parked right next to the airport. Um, just to save minimized time. In panic mode, using this little signage thing to guide me to a spot. Still made it. Before they open the door, so don’t be like me and do that, but I will say my record, my record from, uh, door to gate, I think, getting through TSA and everything, I do have TSA pre, is, I want to say three or four, I think it’s three minutes. I think that’s my record so far. Maybe four minutes, which is crazy. So everybody, just show up a half an hour in advance. It’s totally fine. No, just kidding. Don’t do that. Kevin’s like, no, no, no. So let’s talk about the new airport design a little bit. I know that lots, lots of natural light, um, but art, I’ve been told, because I know some inside sources, art is going to actually structurally be designed into the airport. What’s that look like?

Kevin Foley: about it. It is. Uh, uh, we’ve identified, uh, at least to this point, identified five areas, uh, where art was possible. Um, the, uh, the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation stepped forward, uh, to raise funding for the art and to help. Help acquire the art and the artist more importantly, probably even than funding was the selection of the artist. It was an international search, uh, but they did narrow it down. Uh, some of it was specific to, you have to be an Iowa based artist. Um, but some of the other pieces will be, um, internationally, um, recognized. The artist will be internationally recognized. Um, And so the design, so actually designing, um, the art into the structure so that it’s not just some piece of art hanging on a wall that you, so it will be recessed as if it’s part of the wall in some cases. Um, in other cases, the supports will come down, uh, it was pre planned and supports will come down so it can be hung from the ceiling, uh, and the artist just then needs to come in and hang on to those supports that will already have been installed. Um, one of the things that we did very early on was, uh, the first area that we identified for hanging art. Um, we said, okay, structurally, what do we need to do? Um, and so we supported, reinforced or put larger I beams in the ceiling so that specifically so that art kit could be hung there and weight won’t be a problem. Uh, so it’s those types of things when you say that, you know, structurally is going to be embedded. Uh, it is, but behind the scenes, there’s also other things that were from day one were kind of planned for.

Justin Brady: incredible. So I mean art is going to structurally be baked into the new Des Moines International Airport. Can you mention who the artists are? Ha ha ha ha ha

Kevin Foley: I can’t, number one, because I don’t remember their names. Um, but number two, those, some of those agreements that will be between the Greater Des Moines Public Art Foundation and yeah, they’re still, they’re still working some of those agreements. Well,

Justin Brady: new design I am curious, because the way, again, words I never thought I’d be saying, the way people are traveling to airports Has changed a lot. Even in the last few years, we all remember taxis and people picking us up from the airport. Then Uber and Lyft were kind of a big change. You ended up making a designated spot for Uber and Lyft. Now we’re looking at another change, which is driverless cars. We in, like, I think in Texas this year or next year. They, I think Tesla is getting full licensure to have unsupervised full self driving on their streets. Of course, cyber cab has been announced. Are we going to see cyber cabs with no drivers picking up people from the Des Moines International Airport in 2026 or 2025? And have you guys planned around that?

Kevin Foley: we have planned for it. Do I think, do I think we’re going to see it in 2025 or 2026? I don’t.

Justin Brady: Hard to know. Yeah.

Kevin Foley: Uh, uh, Iowa is a little bit slower to adapt to that type of, of technology. We have a love affair. For that matter, the United States has a love affair with our own personal vehicles. However, uh, younger generation, uh, a lot of, a lot of those folks are one car, uh, families, uh, riding bicycle to work or some other, uh, other method. And so, More and more you’re seeing that’s what that’s why Uber was and Lyft were so successful that the TSA’s the So we’ve planned for it. We have specifically constructed some of the streets to accommodate that But that technology is changing as well. You know when it first came on board You had to have the painted markings on the highway to guide the driverless car and that’s not necessarily the case anymore. Um, but coming off of a gravel road in, in Iowa where, you know, we have a lot of rural people. But passengers coming in, and they do live on gravel roads, uh, how well is that going to function and what is the cost to go out that far? And again, our passengers, when we talk, we market Des Moines as Iowa’s airport. Um, we’re pulling passengers from two and a half to three hours away. They will drive that far for, for, uh, an inexpensive ticket. Will a taxi, even if it’s driverless, go three hours away to bring people in, uh, uh, to the airport? So there’s always going to be a demand for parking. There’s always going to be, uh, demand for the, for, for private vehicle. But here in the Metro, uh, we anticipate it’s. It that, that it will come and in fact, we are looking ourselves, uh, at utilizing that, transporting, whether it’s those rental car passengers I was talking about, that will have to be bused to the south side of the airport. Can we do that with a driverless bus? Um, some airports are already doing that, are already utilizing that, that, um, um, technology. So, planning for it, looking at it, um, but I, I think we’re a ways away from seeing it here in Iowa, seeing it in Des Moines.

Justin Brady: I mean, it could be, it could be, we could be a far, uh, a ways away, but I also thought we were a ways away from like, What cars are doing today? I thought for sure. And I follow the technology. I thought for sure we were five years away from it. We’re here now, which is kind of crazy what some of them can pull off. So it’s fascinating to see that the Des Moines International Airport has planned on an autonomous future. Does that look like special lanes? Like, can you, is there anything that would look weird to us that is surprising when we come up and take a peek at what that infrastructure looks like?

Kevin Foley: uh, you can’t see the, it, the, in the infrastructure is designed, it’s not put in place yet. So there is, but to your point, it is a, a separate lane specific for autonomous vehicles to go to the south side and back up to the, to the terminal area. Uh, but it would intermingle in the terminal area. With, um, cars that are still driven, you know, the, the older vehicles, I will call them. So, um, so there’s going to be that mingling and how all of that functions and works. Um, don’t know yet, but you are right. Austin, Texas, uh, just got approved, um, for, for the autonomous vehicles, the Tesla vehicles in, uh, As far as I know, they’re the first ones that will be 100 percent of, you know, open to that. We’ll see how it

Justin Brady: Well, I can’t wait to take an autonomous ride to Greylot. Or have a cyber cab or a Waymo pick me up at the airport in my own special lane and then drop me off at my door. Like I have a Tesla myself, so I’m kind of excited to have my car drop me at the front door of the airport and then go back home to park itself. Like I’m really excited about that. Uh, last question before I let you go. I’m assuming the new structure of the airport, you mentioned retail. Uh, isn’t a huge deal in Des Moines because we’re not a connection airport. That being said, are we looking at some cool lounges or cool new features in 2026? Because there are some airports that, you know, they do bake some cool features in while people are killing some time. So are there some cool features coming that Iowa travelers will see in the airport?

Kevin Foley: Well, absolutely. I mean, there’s going to be a, um, new airport, new food and beverage areas, um, a new formal sit down type restaurant where if you’ve got time to sit down and order, but there’s going to be several, um, quick serve fast food type type restaurants as well. Two of those in the new terminal, um, coffee and, and, and, um, Um, Pastry shops, both pre and post screening, uh, will be put in. Um, and in looking at, because we’re going to have to use the existing concourses, the main terminal itself will be torn down, but we’re, uh, we’re going to have to use the existing concourses for a while, and, and Porter Mill, the existing restaurant, Um, I’m pretty sure we’ll remain open. We’re still working through operationally how, and, and when that, but during our peak periods, uh, there’s probably enough traffic that we need that restaurant open as well. We did look at, um, putting in a lounge and it would be a common use lounge where all the airlines would be able to participate. It wouldn’t be specific to any one airline. Um, as long as we were willing to pay for that, the airlines were willing to let us build it. But when we said. We need your participation, and we would have to charge either the airlines or the individual passengers to use it. They backed off. They backed away. So, um,

Justin Brady: ha ha ha!

Kevin Foley: So, but I also want to touch on something that you just said. If you can send your car home, uh, to park in your garage, which we anticipate is coming, Um, I will tell you that fully one third of our operating revenue comes from automobile parking.

Justin Brady: Really?

Kevin Foley: lot of debate on whether we needed to build that extension on that, uh, on that garage or not. But again, we’re the only ones that can provide that type of parking. So he cited, absolutely, we needed to move ahead. Um, but there would be changes then if you, in fact, can send your car home and it starts affecting that revenue stream, which is automobile parking. Um, how do we make that up?

Justin Brady: Ah, I can read between the lines here, Kevin. Yeah. And this is a similar situation that we had with Uber and Lyft. Which is there may be if you want to do autonomous drop off and pick up there may be fees associated

Kevin Foley: Yes. Yes. And, and I hate to call it a toll road, so to speak,

Justin Brady: I’m just gonna put a blow up doll in the driver’s seat. Sorry, but you know, that’s what I’m gonna do to fool you all Kevin this has been awesome. Congratulations. I know retirement’s coming up soon I hope we get to talk to you again during that time I know we’ve been talking with your team about maybe doing something kind of fun Bon voyage. Thank you for your service kind of a thing Um, but really appreciate what you’ve done for the airport, what you’ve done for Iowa. Where is the best way your comms, his comms person, Sarah, right? Fantastic. And so she, she would want me to ask this, which is, where’s the website and what’s the best way for people to get really current news on the airport stuff?

Kevin Foley: Fly DSM, if you www fly DSM will pull up our website and, and if you wanna know what’s going on, there is a lift emblem on that website and that will discuss and, and is fairly current on all of the construction that’s going on with current dates. We try to keep it updated as much as we can to include, uh, a flight through of the existing of the, of the new terminal as it’s designed. Um, so, um, it’s, it’s kind of colorless, uh, because we didn’t know what art was going to be in there and so on and so forth, but it’ll fly you right through the new terminal and so you have a good idea what it looks like in, in, uh, the layout.

Justin Brady: Very, very cool. Kevin Foley, the executive director of the airport, who will soon be passing the torch. I hope whoever that next person is, you have very, very big shoes to fill. We’re all counting on you. Thank you so much for coming on the Iowa podcast, Kevin.

Kevin Foley: Thank you. Always a pleasure.