St. Cloud Regional Airport Rebrands as St. Cloud Sky Central Airport

(KNSI) — St. Cloud Regional Airport just got a makeover with a new name and logo.

Now called St. Cloud Sky Central Airport, the fresh logo uses blue and green colors with a stylized plane rising up through the words Sky Central, and “St. Cloud” appears in smaller letters. The new branding will soon start popping up on signs around the airport and letterhead, but the change is in use now for the website, which has moved to FlySkyCentral.com.

Airport Director Bill Towle says officials in charge of the rebrand knew almost immediately they had a winner with ‘Sky Central.’ He states, “Ironically, ‘Sky Central’ actually came out at the very beginning. But we met three or four more times with more things, trying to tweak some things, and we ultimately came back to ‘Sky Central.'”

Brian Myres, who chairs the Saint Cloud Regional Airport Authority, explained that there’s been an airport in St. Cloud for 90 years, with the last 55 spent at the current spot. Over all that time, the airport has grown and added more ways to serve people and businesses throughout Central Minnesota. Myres feels the change just makes sense. “With the airport being the central hub for our region’s aviation activities, being located in Central Minnesota and also in the center of the country, St. Cloud Sky Central Airport is the perfect way to describe it.”

Airport officials say they are working on expanding what is offered to meet the needs of everyone across Central Minnesota, both now and down the road. Towle notes commercial passenger traffic was up 19% from 2023 to 2024 and this year is on pace to expand even more. He talks about what Allegiant Airlines is doing to help make that happen. “Things like adding a couple seats here and there, a little bit bigger airplane. Starting the service to Punta Gorda. Normally, that starts in mid December. Now it’s going to start in late November. So again, it adds a couple of flights on the front end of that.”

Towle knows it’ll take people some time to get used to the new name. That’s just how rebranding works. “It will take a while before people remember that St. Paul’s former Xcel Energy Center is now Grand Casino Arena,” said Towle. “But soon, travelers will tell friends they’re flying out of Sky Central Airport and won’t give it a second thought.”

Beyond hosting Allegiant and Sun Country Airlines, St. Cloud Sky Central Airport sees over 100 aircraft taking off and landing every day. About 140 people work there, from TSA security to firefighters to military and medical personnel. The airport is also home to St. Cloud Aviation, Wright Aero, Midwest Air Traffic Control, the Minnesota Army National Guard, the SCTCC Aircraft Maintenance Technician program, and several other organizations.

All told, Sky Central Airport supports 395 civilian jobs for local residents, plus another 80 military jobs, and has a $50 million annual economic impact on the region, according to a State of Minnesota study.

When Benton, Sherburne, and Stearns counties teamed up with the city of St. Cloud to create the Airport Authority four years ago, it opened doors for a bunch of improvements and investments. They’ve added things like a new fire truck, another T-hangar storage unit, a new hangar development area, and upgraded the air traffic control tower radios, among other things.

The airport’s three-letter, international code remains unchanged, as STC.

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