The Morrisville-Stowe Airport is set to reopen Aug. 1 with a new $4.5 million runway, the first phase of $27 million in investments that the new operators expect will make the airport a major economic engine for the region.
The runway was completely rebuilt and shifted south for safety reasons. It includes new taxiways, parking aprons and the addition of state-of-the-art lighting and navigational aids. The work was funded entirely by the state and federal transportation agencies.
To obtain the government funding, the new airport operators, Stowe Aviation LLC, which took over management of the facility July 1, implemented a development plan that includes an aviation school, a charter air service, airplane storage, a modern maintenance-and-repair business and a restaurant.
It will all be housed in a new terminal, a U.S. Customs building and a new hangar, according to plans unveiled Wednesday.
“This has been an amazing collaboration between private enterprise and government,” said Tom Anderson, Stowe Aviation president and chief operating officer, at a meeting in Stowe Wednesday with state transportation officials. “The state and the federal government have handed us a state-of-the-art (runway) facility.”
The new runway expands the safe day and night use of the airport, which can now handle planes as large as small jets. The former crumbling runway and inadequate lighting and navigation made it impossible or unsafe for many aircraft and pilots.
The airport has been closed to air traffic since April 4 to make way for the new runway and related runway improvements — the first significant upgrades in 35 years.
The airport handles only private planes, including charter flights and flight lessons. No commercial airline flights currently use the airport. Small jets and turboprops scaled back their use of the airport as the runway degraded.
Stowe Aviation could not confirm current air traffic volumes but the recent improvements, and the investments in the years to come, will be a boon to the local economy, company officials said.
New York, Boston, Toronto and Montreal will be reached in a matter of an hour or two by regular charter or private flight, a compelling and convenient transportation option for business people, visitors and locals, said Russell Barr, a Stowe lawyer who is founder and CEO of Stowe Aviation.
Timing is everything. Jay Peak and Stowe Mountain Resort have spent hundreds of millions to expand and improve their facilities, Barr said, but the only way to get there is by driving the rural roads. Not anymore.
“There are approximately 72 million people living within a 90-minute flight of the Morrisville-Stowe State Airport,” Barr said. “Despite this fact and the billions of dollars spent on local tourism infrastructure over the years, our airport has been largely untouched.
“With the help of state, federal and local government, we are correcting that imbalance with a project that will bring increased business and leisure traffic to the region, as well as making it easier for locals to travel.”
The second phase of the airport’s development is being funded by about $20 million in private investment and should be completed within 18 months, Barr said. That includes:
• A new passenger terminal and fixed-base operation — the service for private planes. The goal is to cater to arriving and departing passengers and to their pilots, offering a concierge service.
• An air charter company that will dramatically improve direct access to and from the Stowe region to cities such as New York, Boston, Toronto and Washington, D.C.
• A planned Customs and Im-migration building to boost traffic from Montreal, Toronto and other Canadian points.
• A flight training academy featuring flight-motion simulators that will attract students and pilots from all over the world, and also be a valuable local resource.
• An advanced facility for aircraft maintenance, upgrades, retrofits and enhancements.
• A professional aircraft management company.
• A café in the new terminal.
The airport will employ about 35 people — from food-service workers to airplane mechanics, pilots to terminal attendants — when it is fully up and running, Barr said. But the “indirect” employment from the new business, the people “and currency” it will bring to the area will add zeros to that number.
“This is going to open up markets for our area,” said Barr, who noted that the airport’s location north of Stowe, one step closer to the stunning Northeast Kingdom, will be a boost to that region.
The project at the Morrisville-Stowe Airport falls in line with the state’s aim to make every airport in Vermont economically self-sustaining, at the very least, Transportation Secretary Brian Searles said at the meeting. Last year, the state had to spend about $4.5 million to keep airports across the state running.
Morrisville-Stowe will soon become one airport that will not only uncouple from the state’s money faucet but will likely be an economic hub and tax revenue generator, he said.
Small airports across the nation have become economic engines for their communities and local hubs of activity, Barr and Searles noted.
- Source: http://www.stowetoday.com
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