Study: Investing Millions in Sikorsky Airport will Pay Off

Jan. 18—STRATFORD — As Bridgeport prepares to hand over operation, either through lease or sale, of its Stratford-based airport to the state, a just-released study has concluded the facility needs at least $17 million in new investment but can potentially achieve tens of millions in revenues for Connecticut.

Last spring two of Igor Sikorsky Memorial's tenants, Atlantic Aviation and Three Wing Aviation, along with Mayor Joe Ganim's administration, commissioned the Connecticut Center for Economic Analysis at the University of Connecticut to take a look at how to further develop the airport.

The $47,000 study — Bridgeport pitched in $7,000, with the private companies covering the rest — came as the city sought to bring regular commercial service back and have some hard data to help attract the necessary private, state and federal dollars.

Then it was announced in November that the Connecticut Airport Authority, which state lawmakers established a decade ago to take on the responsibility and the financial burden of running several Connecticut-owned airports like Bradley International, was negotiating to lease or buy Sikorsky from Bridgeport.

Kevin Dillon, the authority's director, said his agency needs no convincing when it comes to Sikorsky's potential.

"We were provided a draft copy (of the UCONN document)," Dillon said. "We're actually still going through it. I'll just say, without specifically commenting on any of the particular items in the study, CAA has felt all along there's a real opportunity to maximize Sikorsky Airport."

The UCONN analysis provides more specifics on how that can be achieved and the minimum nearly $17 million price tag required.

Sikorsky at one time offered regular passenger service from the 1950s until 1999. It currently caters to business, charter and private flights, but the old passenger terminal there was demolished.

The Center for Economic Analysis recommends building two additional, 30,000-square-foot hangars, one this year, the second in 2023, at an estimated $30 per square foot to house and maintain at least 22 private jets. That will cost $1.8 million.

"There's money in that business," said Dan Roach, the Ganim aid involved in talks with the CAA. "There's focus on the passenger service, but the other areas of the airport — corporate and private — are things that keep the airport going."

Then, in order to restore regular commercial flights, the study calls for the installation of a temporary terminal in 2023 and construction of a permanent, $15 million one by 2026.

That building would serve passengers and crew flying to/from Orlando, Fla., Nashville, Tenn., Chicago, Ill., "and multiple communities in between and all cities in Eastern Canada," beginning with six arrivals per day in year one, reaching 17 by late summer of 2026.

"I believe the terminal could be even a little bit more expensive than $15 million, depending on the size and what you're looking to build," Dillon said.

Those $16.8 million worth of UCONN's recommendations would be on top of the $7 million Gov. Ned Lamont's administration recently approved to overhaul one of Sikorsky's two runways, 11/29, which would be the preferred, quieter runway for commercial passenger planes.

And in late December Connecticut's Congressional delegation said that state airports would be receiving nearly $12.5 million from the recently passed federal infrastructure bill, including $763,000 for Sikorsky.

But the Center for Economic Analysis, after weighing multiple economic factors — new taxes and fees, job creation, impact on property values and attracting other business — concluded that the hangars and bringing back passenger service will reap tens of millions of dollars and a more active Sikorsky is vital to help grow the state's economy.

" Connecticut's dismal economic performance in the last decade argues powerfully for mobilizing critical assets such as Sikorsky to drive new business investments and job creation," states the study.

Asked where the money for upgrading Sikorsky will come from, Dillon said, "Certainty the CAA is prepared to invest some of our resources. ... We intend to use our resources to maximize federal grants. We also anticipate there will be private investment into these facilities as well. The terminal building is a primary target for private investment."

Dillon has previously said that Breeze Airways, a new passenger carrier launched by former New Canaan resident David Neeleman that has begun operating out of Bradley, remains interested in Sikorsky. And the company confirmed as much last May in a letter supporting U.S. Rep. Jim Himes' efforts to obtain federal dollars for the airport.

Other highlights from the UCONN study include the conclusion that Sikorsky and New Haven's Tweed Airport can successfully co-exist.

"It is important to recognize that development of Sikorsky is not a dichotomous choice with the planned expansion of Tweed," reads the document. " Connecticut needs to mobilize every asset it can to restore its economic health; the two airports serve fundamentally different regions and expansion of both maximizes the economic benefits the state can capture."

And, perhaps more important for good relations between Bridgeport, the CAA and Sikorsky's host town of Stratford, the Center for Economic Analysis, though touching on the benefits of expanding the runways, found success can be achieved without doing so given technology allowing for shorter takeoffs/landings. The prospect of lengthened runways has traditionally met with stiff opposition in Stratford.

Stratford Mayor Laura Hoydick's chief of staff said they did not want to comment until they had received and reviewed the report.

"In our scenario we do not foresee a runway expansion," Dillon said. "We would not be looking to expand the runways."

As for when the Ganim administration and CAA will have a negotiated deal to present to their respective governing bodies — the Bridgeport City Council and the CAA board — Roach said the sides have agreed on "basic" undisclosed terms.

"It's at the point now where the lawyers are just going to hammer it out," he said.

"I don't want to negotiate it publicly," Dillon said. "We continue to make good progress on it. ... Danny Roach and I, I think, have reached some good understandings as to how this could progress."

Dillon acknowledged a purchase would be "a lot cleaner and a lot easier to accomplish" but a long-term lease would also "provide us with the same flexibility we need to bring development to the airport."

Either way, Dillon said, "We would like to be operating the airport by the end of the year."

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