Mike La Pier, who’s served as Monterey Regional Airport’s executive director since being hired in June 2016, announced today, Sept. 24, that he will be retiring effective June 6, 2025.
In his announcement, La Pier highlighted the many accomplishments achieved by the airport staff in his tenure, including increasing the airport’s cash reserves from $2.8 million to $14 million and counting.
La Pier’s tenure has overseen a major, still-in-progress project to modernize the airport by replacing the existing terminal to a new location in a building that is hoped to more efficiently meet modern aviation requirements and improve passenger experience.
Years in the making, the design is nearly done and is expected to go out to bid in November, and with litigation and approvals in the rearview mirror, La Pier says he feels good that his successor will essentially have a glide path to see the project through to completion, which is expected to happen in 2026. All the contractors have been secured, he says, and adds that airport staff will remain engaged with them throughout, but the heavy lifting has passed.
As far as funding the entirety of the airport overhaul project, which has already received more than $200 million in grants from the Federal Aviation Administration, La Pier is confident the FAA will continue awarding grants until the project is completed.
“We’ve never seen an FAA project they haven’t completed,” La Pier says. “We're watching everything going with the federal budget, but we’re confident the money will be there when we need it.”
La Pier’s announcement also touts the recruitment of flights to Seattle, Denver, Dallas-Fort Worth and Minneapolis, which has increased the airport’s annual “enplanements” from 183,000 when he started to a projected 316,000 in the current fiscal year.
As for what’s next, La Pier says he has no intentions to get a similar job somewhere else.
“I’ve been doing this for a little bit more than 40 years, and it’s probably time to step aside,” he says.
La Pier says he’s planning to retire in Tucson, but when asked how he's going to weather the punishing summer heat, he seems less sure, and says it’s still up in the air.
(1) comment
I've watched with admiration the transformations taking place at the airport. After forty years, he deserves a little time off. I hope he decides to stick around here, after trying out the Arizona sun. He would have valuable business insight for many operations.
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