The Newport State Airport will be renamed next year as part of language signed into law with this year’s transportation bill.
The airport is located in Coventry and is in the middle of a multimillion-dollar expansion project to open it up to more international travel. In part because of its location near the border of Canada, the airstrip will be called the Northeast Kingdom International Airport as of March 1.
Rep. Mike Marcotte, R-Coventry, who is also on the Coventry Selectboard, sponsored the measure with several other lawmakers from the Northeast Kingdom this year. The House Transportation Committee put the language into the transportation bill, H.488.
Marcotte said in an interview that the airport is located in Coventry but is named after another Newport, which was confusing for the public. There are also towns named Newport in New Hampshire and Rhode Island, he said, and that can confuse pilots.
The airport in Coventry is undergoing a 1,000-foot runway extension to be completed by the end of this year. Other changes would open the local airport up to more international travelers between Canada and Jay Peak.
“We’re excited about it,” he said. “We’re hoping that’ll bring more jobs to the area, more jobs to Coventry, more jobs to the Kingdom.”
By 2018, the long-term plan would bring a corporate hangar; better storage facilities for jet fuel; a facility for manufacturing aircrafts; and warehouses to support a special designation as a foreign trade zone.
Developing the airstrip in Coventry has also long been a goal of Jay Peak’s president and CEO Bill Stenger, and his business partner Ariel Quiros.