BROOKINGS – Matthew Sommerfeld likes the variety that comes with managing a small airport and is looking forward to his family becoming part of Brookings.

Sommerfeld is the new manager now the Brookings Regional Airport. He started Aug. 14.

“Still trying to get my feet wet,” he said. “Every day has been a new day, learning something new, what this airport has and how they run things.”

He likes what he’s seen so far.

“They do have all the right people in place to be successful, which makes my job a lot easier,” Sommerfeld said. “There’s definitely a lot of potential for this airport, with SDSU being one of the only universities to offer an aviation program in South Dakota.”

There’s a lot of ground to cover, “especially when you get to these rural airports where you’re in charge of not just one facet but all facets,” he said.

Airport managers have to keep track of aircraft arriving and departing and check the runways, of course, but they handle many other things the public doesn’t normally associate with airports, like wildlife.

“Particularly deer and birds … very hazardous to aircraft, so we try to manage that to mitigate any issues that we might see,” Sommerfeld said.

He’s also responsible for the budget of the airport’s capital improvement plan and seeing to the day-to-day operations. His duties run from emergencies – there’s a fire truck on site – to groundskeeping and maintenance, and that’s the way he likes it.

“It varies from day to day and that’s what’s exciting about it,” Sommerfeld said. “One day, you could be out doing something simple as just cutting the grass to the next day, you could be trying to get some wildlife outside the fences to just sitting down in the office and going through some of the books.”

Of course, as with any outdoor job, weather is a factor.

“The challenging weather can kind of dictate how your days go,” he added, “You know how the winters can be, they can be pretty harsh, so there can be plowing all through the night to get the runways open so aircraft can arrive and depart without any closure.”

He got an early start on his career.

“I hopped in an airplane, a small little 172, … when I was about 12 years old, when I was in Montana,” Sommerfeld recalled. “I was pretty much hooked from there. As a kid, … I kind of gravitated towards the management side or the ops side.”

Sommerfeld is originally from Mile City, in eastern Montana.

“I’ve been in aviation ever since I was in high school, being at the airport every single day. Taking college classes through my senior year in high school,” he said. “I have some pilot experience there, as well. Then I gravitated toward the professional side of things.”

He started at Landmark Aviation, now Signature Flight Support, in Sioux Falls.

“I worked on the line there and then I went to their freight side and became dispatcher for the 12 aircraft they have there,” Sommerfeld said, then he went back to Mile City and managed that airport.

He came to Brookings after spending a year in Omaha, Nebraska, at Jet Linx Aviation as a flight coordination specialist.

“I managed over 100 aircraft, a very diverse fleet. From there, I was part of the dispatch team or coordination team that planned all the flights, worked with crew members, made sure everything was good to go on their end, made sure we were legal to fly,” Sommerfeld said.

The job in Brookings attracted him due to location.

“Southeastern South Dakota is where I call home, I really love the people here, everyone’s great,” Sommerfeld said.

“My wife (Michelle) and I, we met in Sioux Falls; my parents actually live in Sioux Falls right now, so my folks are just down the road,” he said.

That’s important because he and Michelle have a daughter, Kinlee.

“We have a 5-month-old and we’re looking forward to raising her and bringing her up in a community like Brookings, so we’ve very excited to be here,” Sommerfeld said.

He’s also excited to keep learning about his new job.

“I’m looking forward to seeing the growth of this airport. I do plan to be here long-term; this is a good community,” Sommerfeld said. “From everyone that I’ve talked to from around the airport, (they) really are passionate about this airport, which is exciting for me.

“I just want to grow with the community here and see the airport thrive in the future,” Sommerfeld said.

Contact Jodelle Greiner at jgreiner@brookingsregister.com.