EWING
— While Frontier Airlines will not be flying in and out of
Trenton-Mercer Airport during a two-month period of renovations this
fall, smaller jets will still use the airport, county officials said
yesterday.
From early September to early November the terminal,
some of the parking lots and part of the main runway are scheduled to be
under construction, as the county renovates to accommodate the
increased demand it has seen since Frontier began flying out of the
airport last year.
The county will spend $4.2 million to add a new parking area, upgrade the terminal and make runway safety improvements.
Frontier
will not use the airport during the upgrades because the main runway
will be partially closed, said Wolcott Blair, general manager of Ronson
Aviation, which handles maintenance of many planes at the airport. The
airline might have been able to use the airport for shorter trips during
the closure, but weather could have caused many delays when combined
with the effects of the renovation projects, Blair said.
However, most of Trenton-Mercer’s other air traffic, mainly corporate jets, will still be able to operate, he said.
Frontier
began flying out of Trenton-Mercer in November and by April was
offering trips to 10 different destinations from the Ewing airport.
During
the two-month construction period, crews will install EMAS, a strip of
specially designed crushable concrete blocks at the end of the the
airport’s longer, 6,006-foot runway. The blocks are designed to slow and
stop planes that overrun the runway. EMAS beds were installed at both
ends of the airport’s shorter runway last year.
Mercer County
officials said the airport must install the EMAS system to comply with
FAA regulations on runway safety. The project has been planned for
several years and is required to be completed by the end of 2013.
Daniel
Shurz, a Frontier senior vice president, has previously said the
airline asked county officials to move the project’s construction and
installation schedule to the fall because it is the “lowest-demand
period of the year,” and the airline would be able to weather the drop
in ticket sales.
Frontier will resume flying out of the airport in early November, and is selling tickets for flights beginning Nov. 8.
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