Dec. 10--WARWICK, R.I. -- The head of the state agency that runs T.F. Green Airport said Tuesday morning that there's a 75 to 80 percent chance that regularly scheduled international flights will be coming to Rhode Island's main airport in the near future, a first in the airport's history.
"We're very close to an international carrier coming to T.F. Green and providing regularly scheduled service," said Kelly Fredericks, president of the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, the state agency that runs Green and five smaller state-owned airports. He added that an announcement could be made within a couple of months.
Fredericks declined to identify the carrier because negotiations are under way, but said the airline currently flies out of Boston Logan International Airport. He said that flights, on Boeing 757 aircraft, would leave Green twice a week, 52 weeks a year.
On the ground floor of its terminal building, Green has a "federal inspection station," essentially a terminal-within-the-terminal, capable of handling two international flights simultaneously and providing the customs, border patrol and agricultural inspections needed by flights entering the country.
In the past, Green has welcomed weekly charter flights from the Azores during the summer, but has never had year-round international service on a regular schedule.
Copyright 2013 - The Providence Journal, R.I.
