La Crosse Airport director headed to Idaho

The La Crosse Regional Airport is in the market for a new director.

After five years as head of the La Crosse Airport, Ian Turner will be departing soon for a similar job in his home state of Idaho.

Turner has been hired as director of the Idaho Falls airport, and his last day at LSE is Jan. 17.

He has been in La Crosse since 2019. He told WIZM News that getting a new job was not something he had planned.

“The opportunity presented itself,” Turner said. “It’s something that I thought might be a good fit, and took me back to the northwest, where I spent my childhood.”

Turner added that he and his family have enjoyed the La Crosse area, and it’s going to be difficult to leave, but that he and his wife will now be closer to where their parents live.

Looking back at his time in La Crosse, Turner is proud of the way that the airport was able to recover from the COVID pandemic, when passenger numbers dropped sharply.

“We came out of COVID having lost 95 percent of our demand, or our passengers in 2020, and went into the summer of 2021 with more air service than we had in 2019,” Turner said, “and that air service was really well-received here.”

Turner praised the work that the staff at LSE has done in the last few years.

He also urges area residents to continue using the La Crosse airport for direct flights, even though commercial air service is currently down to just one airline, American.

Delta ended regular service to La Crosse last June.