Airplanes sit on the tarmac at the Eastern Oregon Regional Airport in Pendleton on April 29, 2020.

PENDLETON — While it has had devastating effects on other business sectors, Pendleton’s unmanned aerial systems industry wasn’t grounded.

Darryl Abling, the city’s range manager, said operations never really slowed down during the pandemic as social distancing didn’t really prevent UAS companies from running test flights.

Abling said total operations were up from 2019 and he expects them to reach a new annual high of 5,000-7,000 test flights in 2021.

He added that both public and private hangars are being built to accommodate customers and a UAS industrial park is nearly complete.

Abling said the total number of jobs now concentrated at the range is now just under 100, he said. While some are based in Pendleton, others are commuting in from elsewhere. A veteran of aerospace giant Northrop Grumman, Abling said it’s not unusual in the aviation industry for employees to commute in from far-flung locales to go to work.

Pendleton is building a UAS industrial park under the idea that it could lead to a UAS manufacturing facility in the future, a prospect that could lead to a significant jobs boost at the range. Abling said Pendleton has a few leads on companies interested in manufacturing, but even if it doesn’t come together, the range should remain sustainable.

Abling said it also isn’t a bad sign when there’s turnover at the range. Last year, the range lost prominent customers Airbus and PAE.

Abling said residents should expect a fair amount of coming or going at a range, whether it’s because a project is intentionally short term or a company simply isn’t able to make their UAS idea work.

“They fail for a variety of reasons,” he said. “It’s a hard industry to break into.”

Unencumbered by millions of dollars of debt that was wiped away by federal stimulus designated for COVID-19 relief, Airport Manager Steve Chrisman said he was bullish on the future of the airport.

Besides the growth of the UAS range, Chrisman spoke about a few other developments at the airport.

The Pendleton airport hasn’t had an airport rental car supplier since Hertz left town following former air service provider SeaPort’s bankruptcy declaration in 2016.

While it’s not a full-fledged office, Chrisman said Enterprise Rent-A-Car will be installing a dropbox for car rentals within the next few months. Boutique Air, the city’s current passenger air service provider, will continue to maintain its own fleet of rental cars, but Chrisman said Enterprise will give people who land in Pendleton more long-range options.

Chrisman said Makad Corp. will begin work on its long-gestating airport hotel project in January. He confirmed that the Vancouver-based Makad will partner with Radisson on the 74-room hotel, but he said he didn’t have many more details besides that.

Allan Fulsher, Makad Corp.’s general counsel, declined to comment while Tawni Camarillo, a company vice president, didn’t return an email requesting comment.

While Makad Corp. developed the River Lodge and Grill in Boardman, its other projects at the Port of Morrow either failed to come to fruition or got bogged down in a lawsuit before being sold.

Its other announced project in Pendleton — a data center on Airport Road — has yet to break ground.

The Pendleton City Council approved a lease with a Makad Corp. subsidiary to build the hotel in the airport’s long-term parking lot, but stripped many of the incentives it had asked for.