Before the September 2008 financial crisis, Stewart International Airport was on course to hit the one-million-passenger mark. Since then though, it has been averaging 400,000 fliers a year, with 2011 showing the most substantial growth to date.
The bright spot is that cargo, which was at a high of 17,666 tons when the Port Authority took over the airport, has been going up each year and reached 16,484 Â tons in 2011.
Regional companies, including Mechtronics in Beacon and Continental Organics in New Windsor, said the proximity to Stewart gives them the ability to move products quickly and was a major consideration in their site selection.
Since taking over National Express”™s 99-year lease in October 2007, the PANY/NJ has invested $57 million in infrastructure improvements and plans to spend an additional $19 million this year.
A preliminary sketch of the addition planned for the north side of the terminal highlighted a permanent federal inspection station that will allow international arrivals and departures to operate simultaneously. The current FIS set up in 2010 to accommodate Apple Tours”™ charter flights to Cancun is not suitable for the long-term goals of the airport, said Heslin. (Apple is not returning this year.)
Heslin estimated the expansion will create 120 jobs and contribute $33 million to the economy. Contracts are expected to be awarded by the fourth quarter of 2012 and work should be completed in 2013. The PANY/NJ has already authorized $2.5 million for the project design phase.
SAC Commissioner James Wright asked Heslin if the second floor addition planned above the existing baggage claim area would include a restaurant, an item that”™s been on the commission”™s to-do-list for several years. Heslin said there are no plans to build a full-scale restaurant in the airport at this time.
Work on the runways, he said, will create more than 800 jobs and contribute more than $220 million to the economy. The PANY/NJ is scheduled to award contracts by the fourth quarter of this year and expects the runways to be completed within two years, the target date being the fourth quarter of 2014.
Heslin told commission members a preliminary capital plan for the airport is under consideration by the PANY/NJ. When asked, Heslin told deputy commissioner Lou Heimbach he could not go into specifics until the plan was set. It is available for viewing on the authority”™s website, www.panynj.gov.
SAC member Chris White said there is a six-month moratorium on initial plans to close some of the U.S. Postal Service”™s distribution centers, including the one at Stewart. There are hundreds of postal employees at the New Windsor site.
