A 30-year era of commercial flights out of the Northwest Iowa Regional Airport in Spencer ends tonight. Great Lakes Aviation will fly their last plane out of Spencer tonight. Longtime airport boardmember Harry Rasdahl says service started in the early 1970’s when Spencer residents convinced an airline carrying mail to add some seats for passengers. Rasdahl says five different carriers flew into Spencer over the next several years. Then in 1981, a couple from Spirit Lake created Great Lakes Aviation. Back then it was called Iowa Great Lakes Airline. Rasdahl says efforts to get Northwest to fly into Spencer have failed. He says though, he is optimistic they can get commercial flights back to the airport.