Low-profile airport hit with corporate travelers

MISSION READY: Members of the 143rd Airborne Infantry Company and the 56th Troop Command, Rhode Island Army National Guard, prepare for a combat training jump out of a C-130J Super Hercules. / COURTESY MASTER SERGEANT JANEEN MILLER
MISSION READY: Members of the 143rd Airborne Infantry Company and the 56th Troop Command, Rhode Island Army National Guard, prepare for a combat training jump out of a C-130J Super Hercules. / COURTESY MASTER SERGEANT JANEEN MILLER

Protruding a mile into Narragansett Bay, North Kingstown’s Quonset State Airport has a decidedly lower profile than the state’s main airport, Warwick’s T.F. Green Airport.
Yet Quonset State, home to the 143rd Airlift Wing of the Rhode Island Air National Guard, the 126th Aviation Regiment of the Rhode Island Army National Guard and a general-aviation facility, is a key part of the local economy due largely to the Guard’s presence. And despite that low profile, or perhaps because of it, Quonset State is the airport of choice for many corporate executives in the region.
“An aircraft that comes onto the ramp here can be serviced by an automobile, there’s no need to deal with the [Transportation Security Administration] as you have at an airport like T.F. Green,” said Dave Lucas, who manages the Providence Jet Center – Quonset, as well as the airport itself, speaking to the airport’s attractions to corporate fliers. “It’s really more of a family-type facility. Anyone who uses the airport regularly becomes part of our family.”
Lucas’ employer is AvPORT, which runs Quonset State, including servicing both jet and propeller-planes’ various needs, on behalf of Rhode Island Airport Corporation.
In 2009, Quonset State opened a new terminal-and-hangar facility, constructed in part to grow its cargo business and attract more travelers. The cargo growth never happened because T.F. Green is a better option for that, said RIAC President and CEO Kelly Fredericks. But Quonset State’s improved facilities are appreciated by corporate travelers, he said.
Although Lucas confirmed the airport’s popularity with corporate executives in a series of interviews with Providence Business News, he declined to provide details on companies or individuals, citing a need to protect their privacy.
Chuck O’Koomian’s A Airline Express Limousine and Car Service, located in North Kingstown, regularly brings executives to and from the airport. He has witnessed the effort to protect the privacy of corporate clients.
“Ninety percent of my drivers are all former military,” O’Koomian said. “We can follow directions. We pick up people there, our windows are tinted black, nobody knows who it is. That’s why they choose us. They have security-tinted windows, nobody can see anybody. That’s how they get their security. There [are] flights that come in all the time. “It’s accessible, you’re right in the middle of the state,” said O’Koomian, citing another of the airport’s attraction. “We have executives that come in that work at some major corporate companies.”
Dean Saucier, the National Business Aviation Association representative for the Northeast who routinely flies himself in and out of Quonset State, agreed that security concerns lead many corporate executives to maintain privacy about which airports they prefer. But he says execs love using Quonset because it’s easy to use.
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with T.F. Green, it’s a great airport,” Saucier said. “The difference is I don’t have to line up behind two or three airlines at Quonset. The fuel is readily available. If I’m a corporate guy, and I need coffee or ice, I can get it readily at Quonset, whereas currently at T.F. Green it’s not quite as accessible.
“The other thing is that parking is so much easier at Quonset than it is at T.F. Green … [where] general-aviation parking is very limited,” he said. “We can go and park in public parking for the main airport, but then we need to take a taxi to get to general aviation. Automobile parking is really terrific at Quonset. You can get in, you can get out.”
A pronounced seasonality at Quonset State (the summer months are busier than the winter months) is something that Lucas and the people at AvPORT are working to overcome. In summer, 30 or 40 takeoffs and landings in a single day just by corporate jets are routine. In winter the number of takeoffs and landings is generally less than half that number.
“We’re trying to grow,” Lucas said. “Most of our clients are heading to Newport for the summer. It’s definitely a destination airport.”
Among the reasons that corporate jets can come and go with ease is the aviation footprint of the Air National Guard and Army National Guard. A well-staffed tower serving the needs of the National Guard keeps the airport open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. each day, a luxury for a relatively quiet airfield, according to Lucas. While the military base personnel don’t compare numerically to when the U.S. Navy was running Quonset Naval Air Station, there are more than 1,000 National Guard personnel and support staff during the one weekend per month that the facility runs at full capacity.
Local businesses benefit from such a presence, according to Martha Pughe, director of the North Kingstown Chamber of Commerce.
“I can tell you it’s very beneficial to our area,” said Pughe. “If you look at all the auxiliary services they get over at the base, they all come from local businesses.”
Local hotels, transport companies, restaurants and hardware stores are among those to benefit from the presence of the active National Guard, according to Pughe.
The unofficial off-base canteen for many in the Guard is the Quonset location of Dave’s Marketplace, particularly during lunch. Indeed, Dave’s and some other local businesses can be surprisingly full of camouflage on any given day.
“Generally, when we’re having lunch we are in uniform, because it’s part of the duty day,” said Maj. Barret Kracht, a flight instructor at the base.
At Dave’s, manager Manny Torres said the National Guard personnel have a noticeable impact on the store’s bottom line. “It’s a really good thing for us, to be honest with you,” Torres said. “They come in pretty much daily. It’s a great impact that they have.”
On once-a-month Guard duty weekends, Dave’s has to increase staff. “We do extra preparing in the morning to get ready for the lunch for them,” Torres said. “It’s deli, it’s pizza, and hot foods. They also, of course, buy the single drinks.”
“There are still a lot of local people who don’t know that the Guard is here,” said Kracht, the flight instructor. “We’ll explain that the risk is still fairly significant, that you can get the call at any time to go into a hostile environment and be serving in a war.” •

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