[B]ENNINGTON — A nonprofit that has been operating the state airport in Bennington since May says it’s making progress toward expanding activities and services enough to attract a for-profit operator again.
General Manager John Likakis said the Bennington Airport Development Corp. replaced a series of aviation firms that filled the role of fixed-base operator at William H. Morse State Airport.
He said economic conditions dating to the Great Recession eventually made the operation unsustainable for a commercial operator.
“It was just not viable,” he said. “There was not enough activity at the airport.”
The group, he said, is focused on luring aviation-related organizations and groups to schedule activities at Morse Airport; generating additional income from hangar space, plane tie-down rentals, fuel sales and other sources; and attracting events to bring students and the general public to the facility.
Likakis said the nonprofit was set up in late 2015 and this year concluded “a unique operating agreement with the state.”
He credited the group’s principals as well as Vermont Aeronautics Administrator Guy Rouelle and the secretary of transportation with crafting the deal. The most recent company to operate the airport departed in 2014, Likakis said.
The group works with Christopher Beitzel, airport manager at Rutland-Southern Vermont Regional Airport, concerning activities requiring coordination with the state, such as runway improvement, or regulatory aspects of aviation for which the state has sole or shared responsibility.
Concerning the 3,704-foot airport runway, the facility’s airport committee said Thursday that members expect to receive an update from state officials at their November meeting. They expect to hear more details of a planned federal- and state-funded runway resurfacing and enhancement project.
Users of the Bennington airport include private pilots, some of whom have hangar space or plane tie-downs there, and charter businesses, which bring corporate officials, tourists or other visitors to the area. A number of clubs and organizations also schedule activities there.
Likakis said one recent expansion of services to increase activity and revenue was having the airport staffed on weekends. A lack of coverage those days had been a factor in a decline in use by commercial groups, he said. For instance, he said, a group of skiers heading for Mount Snow was scheduled to arrive.
Likakis has been a licensed pilot for 35 years and was the safety director with AirNow, the former freight delivery business and longtime fixed-base operator at the airport. He and Morse Airport Manager Rob Luther staff the terminal building. That structure and an adjacent large hangar are owned by the state and being leased to the nonprofit operator.
The facility is classified as an “uncontrolled airport,” Likakis said, meaning it can be used by any pilot or business that complies with Federal Aviation Administration and state regulations. The type of aircraft that could land is restricted to small planes, small jets and medium turboprop crafts such as the Beech King Air models used for charter flights.
The recession of 2008-09 led to an era of declining activity at the airport, Likakis said. AirNow, which also lost some major shipping contracts as businesses began to develop other transport options, eventually ceased operations, and the firm dissolved in early 2011.
Likakis said that at one time the local air freight service generated a payroll of $1.5 million within the Bennington area, and the hope is to bring back some of that type of business activity.
The nonprofit airport operator’s treasurer, David Corey, owned the local air freight service. Corey said about 50 people once were employed at the airport. “I don’t think that will happen again,” he said, “but we could get private (businesses) in here. That’s easily doable.”
In addition, Likakis said he is pursuing educational programs in cooperation with local schools.
In November, a program for local students is planned to introduce them to drones in cooperation with a drone club that has space at the airport.
Airport committee member Leik Myrabo, who is president of the local chapter of the Experimental Aircraft Association, said he is planning an event in 2017 for manned, battery-powered craft.
Other organizations active at the airport include the Civil Air Patrol, which recently approved Squadron 034, based in Bennington.
Flight school operations also are targeted for expansion in Bennington, Likakis said. He and Luther are updating or acquiring the certificates needed to provide ground school instruction at the airport, which covers the textbook side of aviation to complement time spent in the air with a flight instructor.
Teamflys and owner Trevor Gilman, based at the airport in North Adams, Massachusetts, have been providing flight lessons for local pilots in training, Likakis said, and the goal is to sign up enough students to schedule multiple sessions at least one day a week in Bennington.