BURLINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence landed in Burlington Friday morning as part of his abbreviated Labor Day Weekend trip to Vermont.
Pence’s plane landed without issue around 10:52 a.m. on Friday, according to Gene Richards, the airport’s aviation director. The vice president also visited Vermont last year for Labor Day weekend.
Richards said the landing had no major effect on the airport’s operations Friday. The airport was under Temporary Flight Restrictions for around fifteen minutes from 10:45 to 11 a.m.
“Everything was very uneventful and extremely efficient,” Richards said.
Pence had been scheduled to arrive in Vermont around 2 p.m. Friday, but changed his plans after President Donald Trump decided to stay in Washington to monitor Hurricane Dorian instead of going on his planned trip to Poland.
Trump was scheduled to go to Poland to visit President Andrzej Duda to remember the 80th anniversary of the start of World War II.
Hurricane Dorian is expected to be upgraded to a Category 4 storm and make landfall on the northwestern Bahamas by Saturday night before hitting Florida’s east coast or southern Georgia on Sunday or Monday, according to Weather.com.
Only one aircraft at the airport was affected by Pence’s landing, an American Airlines flight that had to circle for “seconds” as the VP landed, Richards said.
Richards said he had not been notified about Pence’s departure plan, and whether or not Pence would be flying out of Burlington.
During his three-day 2018 visit, Pence’s visited Lake Hortonia in Hubbardton, which is in western Rutland County. Pence did not hold any official events, and was seen fishing on Lake Hortonia, eating a large maple creemee in Sudbury and visiting the President Calvin Coolidge State Historic Site in Plymouth Notch.
His 2018 visit cost the state at least $106,825 in payroll for the Department of Public Safety, according to public records obtained by VTDigger.
Clarification: This story was updated to clarify that the payroll expenses were associated with Vice President Pence’s 2018 trip.
