New mission for Quonset State Airport

Each of the state’s five general aviation airports has a niche to fill, says R.I. Airport Corporation President & CEO Kevin Dillon.
Newport and Block Island predominantly serve vacationers. Westerly is a jumping-off point for trips to Block Island and New York. North Central is a gateway for corporate travel into Providence. Renovations and additions under way at those airports – there’s now more than $15 million in planned, in-construction or just-finishing work at the state’s general aviation facilities – won’t change those airports’ roles.
Then there’s Quonset State Airport.
That RIAC airport in North Kingstown is preparing to open a new $7 million terminal-and-hangar facility that will, RIAC hopes, attract new travelers, business tenants and, eventually, a robust cargo operation.
Until now Quonset has catered to general aviation, with about 14,000 operations a year, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. Military operations make up another 5,800 of the approximately 20,750 annual operations, FAA reported.
Standing inside the new 20,000-square-foot hangar, set to open for operations later this month, Dillon last week told North Kingstown lawmakers Rep. Laurence W. Ehrhardt, a Republican, and Democratic Sen. James C. Sheehan that he intends to bring cargo through the airport.
“I think this represents what will be the first investment of many,” he said. “This airport has a lot of potential because of its natural attributes – the port, the rail, the access to the [nearby] highway being recently improved [with a new Route 403.] There are a lot of things working in our favor as far as future economic development.”
And while Dillon is looking to attract cargo to Quonset, cargo traffic through Warwick’s T.F. Green Airport – the only airport to handle significant cargo in the state – is dropping. RIAC reports that cargo there has fallen from 2.47 million pounds in April 2008 to 1.57 million pounds in April 2009 – a 36.5 percent drop.
Still, Dillon was confident last week, saying, “In the past, I think the integrated cargo suppliers – the FedExs and UPSs – had been reluctant to start service [in Quonset] because of the time constraints associated with ground access to the facility.” With those carriers “five minutes, in terms of their ground transport, is a lot,” Dillon said, adding that the highway improvements should reduce that transport time.
The new terminal replaces an adjacent building, built in the 1940s, which will eventually be demolished. During the next two years, while the U.S. National Guard builds a new flight control tower behind the current terminal, RIAC will gradually move its operations to the new terminal, RIAC Manager of Engineering Ahmed Shihadeh said.
While many of RIAC’s projects are funded at least in part by FAA grants – RIAC would pay, for example, about 50 percent of the proposed T.F. Green runway expansion – the Quonset project was funded entirely by RIAC construction bonds, Dillon said.
“We simply cannot be effective if we don’t have infrastructure that serves the entire fleet mix,” he added. “All of these GA airports, I can’t overemphasize how important a role they play on a system-wide basis.”
And along with Quonset, the general aviation airports in Rhode Island – North Central Airport on the Smithfield-Lincoln border, Newport State Airport in Middletown, and the Block Island and Westerly airports – handle a load of about 90,000 general aviation operations a year, according to FAA data.
General aviation traffic at T.F. Green totals about 27,000 operations a year. (With commercial and cargo operations, T.F. Green traffic totals more than 100,000 operations a year, according to the FAA.)
General aviation traffic at T.F. Green has dropped off over the last few years. In the first four months of 2009, there were 5,005 general aviation operations there, down from the 5,592 operations in the same 2008 period, according to RIAC records. While the year-over-year drop was only a 10.5 percent decrease, traffic is down 34.7 percent since the same 2005 months, when there were 7,666 flights.
At least part of RIAC’s ability to attract more general aviation traffic will be based on keeping the state sales-and-use tax exemptions for aircraft and parts in place, Dillon told Providence Business News last week.
Last year the controversial Economic Growth and Fairness Act of 2008 introduced in the General Assembly called for repealing that tax exemption. The bill failed but Dillon said there’s still a lot of talk about putting such a tax in place. “If they were to implement a sales tax, it would have a significantly detrimental effect on us,” Dillon said. “We built this facility on the reliance that that exemption was there. Massachusetts has the same exemption, so does Connecticut. … If you have somebody who wants to base an aircraft in New England, they just have to go 50 miles up the road or over the Groton, Conn., where they have the sales tax exemption.”
And with the new terminals, RIAC also is hoping to draw new tenants that want easy access to airstrips.
At the new terminal, there’s 2,300 square feet of space available for aviation-related business. Landmark Aviation, the airport manager and one of four tenants at the former terminal, has taken out space. A.D.S.I., Applied Radar Inc. and Cindtronix Aviation are the other tenants at the older terminal.
Cindtronix, the Cessna flight school based at the aging terminal, is in final negotiations with the Airport Corporation to relocate to the new space. The move to the new building will be a step up for the school, Chief Flight Instructor Chris Peet said last week.
“We’re happy here, but this building has some engineering deficiencies,” Peet said of the current terminal. “It’s hot in the summer, cold in the winter. You can’t drink the water. It’s an old building.”
The new $6 million Block Island Airport terminal will house The Block Island Tourism Council, which began moving into new office space June 1. Executive Director Jessica Willi last week said the new office will allow for “a presence at the other gateway to the island. We’re at the harbor and now we’re at the airport as well.”
Dillon added that the new terminal on Block Island has already led to increased traffic. He hopes the same will happen in Quonset, he said.
“It’s difficult to give specifics, but this no doubt will lead to growth,” he said, standing in the 20,000-square-foot hangar, empty but for one plane. “But what I’d like to see over time is the growth of a critical mass of business activity that ultimately will start to progress into something larger, like cargo or maybe even aircraft maintenance facilities or an aircraft-maintenance base.” •