Report: Airline Unlikely at BNAS Aviation Future of BNAS Studied

By DENNIS HOEY Staff Writer

Brunswick Naval Air Station, with two refurbished, 8,000-foot- long runways, a new air traffic control tower and new hangars, would seem to be the ideal spot for a commercial passenger airport.

But a team of aviation consultants has concluded that hosting a commercial airline such as Southwest or JetBlue would be the least desirable option among five aviation scenarios the team considered.

Edwards and Kelcey, a Boston consulting firm, presented its conclusions last week to members of the Brunswick Local Redevelopment Authority, the body charged with developing a reuse plan for the base, which is scheduled to close in 2011.

Though the authority won’t make a final decision until later this year, it’s unlikely the panel would pursue any effort to market the military airfield for commercial passenger flights.

However, the consultants did recommend that Brunswick be preserved for other types of civilian aviation uses, such as a landing field for corporate jets, a flight school or as a manufacturing site for composite components for aircraft.

The consultants found that the midcoast market could not support a commercial airport, and public support is lacking for commercial passenger flights.

"Everything we’ve heard so far indicates there won’t be a commercial passenger airline at Naval Air Station Brunswick," said Jeffrey Jordan, the authority’s deputy director.

The authority, the Maine Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration hired Edwards and Kelcey for $200,000 last year to study the feasibility of converting the air base to some type of civilian aviation use.

After holding public workshops on the issue in June and October, principal airport planner Stephen Berardo and his team spent several months crafting a preliminary proposal that examined five aviation scenarios. Berardo said he relied on interviews with commercial airlines and an FAA study to reach some of his conclusions.

"They (commercial airlines) told me the Brunswick market would have trouble generating enough traffic," Berardo said.

The FAA study found that roughly 60 percent of the southern Maine market that potentially could fly from the Portland Jetport actually was traveling to airports in Manchester, N.H., and Boston. Berardo said that finding made the prospect of luring passengers to Brunswick even less likely.

He said the more feasible options for Brunswick would involve reusing the base runways and hangars for general aviation purposes such as corporate jet flights, government or military aviation research, as well as aircraft maintenance, repairs and manufacturing.

Edwards and Kelcey’s aviation study will be incorporated into a much broader study that examines redevelopment options for the entire base. The authority will use those studies to create its final reuse plan for the installation.

"We’re not making a statement that the aviation use is a higher or better than any other use," Berardo said. "All we are saying is that the Navy is going to be turning over an airport that is in good to excellent condition."

Several aviation-related prospects already have cropped up, though nothing will be finalized until the reuse plan is adopted later this year.

Berardo said General Dynamics Corp., which owns Bath Irons Works, has permission to fly its corporate jets in and out of Brunswick. Its subsidiary, Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., designs, manufactures, and supports business jet aircraft.

Karl Hoose, president of Applied Thermal Science in Sanford, said his company is interested in locating a research and development division for unmanned aerial vehicles in Brunswick. His client would be the military.

Hoose said the base could be an ideal location to test the vehicles because of the unrestricted airspace over the Atlantic. Applied Thermal Science, which is located at Sanford’s airport, would not move, he said. Hoose said he hopes the base will be preserved for some type of aviation use.

"Brunswick Naval Air Station is a facility that the state of Maine should keep and nurture," Hoose said.

Twin Cities Air Service in Auburn also is interested in the base for expanding its charter, fuel sales, and flight school operations.

"We are out of space and our buildings are old," said Dale Stewart, a pilot who manages Twin Cities for owner Nate Humphrey.

Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be reached at 725-8795 or at

dhoey@pressherald.com

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