Sky Harbour, a New York-based aviation infrastructure development company, met with the Airport Commission about operating revenue-generating hangars for business flights hosted at Sikorsky Memorial Airport. The deal does not include commercial passenger flights that have been dormant for 30 years.
Bridgeport’s municipally-owned airport is located in Stratford that is under new leadership with Democratic Mayor David Chess. For years Bridgeport has been challenged to better utilize the asset, either through reconnecting commercials flights or an outright sale or management agreement.
The location is prime territory for Connecticut’s Gold Coast with Westchester Country Airport positioned to the west and Tweed New Haven to the east, both offering commercial flights.
From Brian Lockhart, CT Post:
“I want to pursue this opportunity,” Lisa Trachtenberg, the aviation facility’s interim general manager, told members of the Bridgeport Airport Commission when the group convened Tuesday.
One of them, Bridgeport Finance Director Kenneth Flatto, said initially it appears the city-owned airport would receive a nice bump in rent, while Stratford, where Sikorsky Memorial is actually located, would get additional tax dollars.
“Our airport has lost money over the years in terms of expenses versus revenues,” Flatto said. “This potential arrangement would really help us to sustain the revenue we need to operate the airport to the level it should be. (And) I love the fact this deal could generate revenue… to Stratford through property taxes and personal property taxes.”
The group subsequently voted to authorize Trachtenberg and municipal staff to enter into lease negotiations with Sky Harbour to build and operate three hangars on an underutilized 11-acre section of Sikorsky Memorial. According to Sky Harbour’s senior vice president, Neil Szymczak, that campus would then be a home base for “Fortune 500 companies or individuals or charter operators that have fleets of aircraft that really want to have those aircraft under one roof.”
Full story here
See report from News 12 here
why aren;t they competing with Tweed for that florida commercial business???????
We owe it to ourselves, great move Ken!