Feb. 5—BRIDGEPORT — The Connecticut Airport Authority is willing to pay the city up to $10 million to purchase Sikorsky Memorial Airport.
"We have decided it would be in our best interests to try to pursue an acquisition," Kevin Dillon, the authority's director, said Friday. "It's easier to accomplish. It's a lot cleaner."
When it was publicly revealed in mid-November that the authority, which operates Bradley International and five other state-owned airports, wanted to add Bridgeport's Stratford-based Sikorsky to its portfolio, leasing the facility was also on the table.
But Dillon has since voiced his preference for a sale. And this week the CAA board made that option the official way forward, approving a "term sheet" outlining the requirements of Dillon's final negotiations with Mayor Joe Ganim's administration and specifying the authority's end goal is to own Sikorsky at a sale price of $10 million.
"That does not mean if for some reason we can't reach an understanding on the acquisition we won't come back and revisit a long-term lease," Dillon noted.
Bridgeport for the past few years has been trying to lure regular commercial passenger service back to Sikorsky after those flights ended there over two decades ago. The facility currently caters to business, charter and private planes, but the old passenger terminal there was demolished.
The challenge for the Ganim administration and any interested private airlines has been that Sikorsky has an annual operating deficit of around $500,000 and it will take millions worth of infrastructure upgrades to again offer commercial passenger flights.
A recently released study that the city co-commissioned with tenants Atlantic Aviation and Three Wing Aviation on the airport's unrealized economic potential concluded Sikorsky could reap millions for the state from new taxes and fees, jobs, a positive impact on property values and by attracting other businesses, but a new passenger terminal alone will cost at least $15 million.
Enter the CAA which, Dillon, Ganim aides, Sikorsky tenants and other airport advocates have argued, has the ability to obtain those infrastructure dollars and the expertise to take Sikorsky to the next level and make it an important part of Connecticut's transportation infrastructure and economy.
Dillon said he hoped to be able to finalize a deal with Bridgeport so that the CAA will take over Sikorsky by year's end.
"So long as it (the deal) follows the provisions of the term sheet," he emphasized.
As for the $10 million sale price, Dillon noted that is contingent upon Bridgeport being able to prove under Federal Aviation Administration guidelines that the city over the years has spent that much out of its operating budget, excluding airport revenues, to keep Sikorsky running.
Because the FAA has invested lots of money into Sikorsky, Bridgeport is prevented from simply selling off the facility and realizing a profit. So, for example, proceeds from current leases and fees there must be reinvested back into the site.
The CAA's term sheet, which the authority provided Hearst Connecticut Media Friday following a Freedom of Information Act request, also requires the CAA to offer employment to all existing airport employees "no earlier than Aug. 1 2022" and to retain the name.
In December the Ganim administration, for marketing purposes, re-christened Sikorsky as the " Bridgeport Sikorsky Memorial Airport," angering some who saw the change as an affront to Igor Sikorsky, the aviation engineer and icon after which the facility was named in 1972.
"The CAA agrees to operate the airport under the name 'Bridgeport- Sikorsky,'" specifies the term sheet.
If the CAA buys the airport it would also be required to set up an advisory committee "to ensure communication between the airport and the local community." Efforts over the years to improve Sikorsky and host more flights there have met intense opposition from some Stratford residents.
According to the term sheet, the CAA will also undertake a study to determine if there are any environmental issues at Sikorsky that need to be addressed ahead of the infrastructure upgrades. The document notes, "The existence of contamination and required remediation may affect the date of sale and, possibly, the city's ability to sell the airport."
Bridgeport's City Council will ultimately have to vote to sell. And as of Friday Council President Aidee Nieves said she would prefer leasing to the CAA.
"I'm at 'no sale,'" Nieves said, arguing she believes Bridgeport would be better off continuing to own Sikorsky, particularly if the goals of upgrading the site and bringing back commercial passenger service could still be accomplished through a lease with CAA.
Meanwhile Councilwoman Maria Pereira, who has frequently complained whenever the city invests dollars into the money-losing airport, on Friday held the opposite opinion. Pereira believes if the Ganim administration has a chance to get out of the airport business, it should take it.
"I can tell you in my 12 years in politics I've never had a constituent talk about the airport and how much we need one," Pereira said Friday. "It might be important to corporations, but it's not important to the people I serve every day."
David Faile, head of the Friends of Sikorsky organization representing the facility's' users, said he is "neutral" on CAA being the owner versus versus leasing and managing the property.
"I don't know what would be better for the airport and users," Faile said, adding he is worried about what the future holds for "small general aviation light craft" at the site and is seeking assurances those planes and their pilots will still have an important role there.
"It's the small general aviation airplanes that do lots of takeoffs and landings and keep the traffic count up at the airport," Faile said. "A lot of FAA funding is based on how active the airport is."
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