Green Airport has been capable of processing international flights since 1999, but not until June 2 will it start operating on a regular basis.

“It’s like we’re getting ready for the big game,” Rhode Island Airport Corporation president and CEO Kelly Fredericks said yesterday as Senator Jack Reed, accompanied by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officials and an entourage of media, toured the facility that is near the baggage claim area.

Up until this point, the facility has been used for the processing of visitors arriving on charter flights mostly from the Azores on a periodic basis.

That changes next month. Reed and Fredericks sees the new service as a prelude to more international flights, especially with the completion of an extended main runway scheduled for Dec. 7, 2017.

Starting June 2, Transportes Aereos de Cabo Verde (TACV) will begin service twice a week, offering flights from Providence to the city of Praia on the island of Santiago. And beginning June 18, Condor Airlines will start regularly scheduled seasonal service from Providence to Frankfurt, Germany (FRA).

Fredericks and RIAC are working for additional international flights. Fredericks said prospects include service to London, Ireland, Dominican Republic and Cancun.

Reed endorsed the new international service as evidence the airport “is not just staying in place.” Without growth and the improvements that include the longer runway; safety area improvements to the shorter 16-34 Runway; a facility for the capturing and treatment of deicing fluid and the relocation of Winslow Park playing fields, Reed said the choice would have been to allow the airport to become “more and more obsolete.” In total he estimated $110 million in federal funds have flowed into the airport projects.

Helen Sterling, who directs the regional office for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, guided the tour through the customs processing area that smelled of fresh paint and featured signage in English as well as Portuguese and German. Apart from APCs (automated passport controls), which could become available if international traffic demanded it, the facilities at Green have the latest in technology, including enhanced biometrics used in reading fingerprints. Arriving passengers will take an elevator down to the facility that also includes its own baggage claims.

Fredericks stressed there would be no co-mingling of international and domestic arrivals.

While Sterling wouldn’t venture how long it could take an arrival to be processed, Reed pointed out that the facility is sophisticated and designed to move arrivals quickly. And, he noted, that unlike many other international arrival facilities, those arriving will be a short distance from the meters and greets area and connecting transportation.

TACV will use Boeing 757 aircraft with seating for 210.

Fredericks said preparations for the facility have been a year in the making with regular work sessions and meetings.

“We’re never going to be a Boston Logan,” he said, “but this is a great start for us.”

Reed observed the longer runway also bodes well for longer domestic flights. He called improvements at Green a “very positive investment in the state.”