By JOHN HOWELL

For old timers it’s going to seem like the clock is running backward when they consistently see at least two Rhode Island Air National Guard planes on Green Airport tarmac starting as soon as next month.

What’s happening is that the main runway, Runway 16/34, at Quonset where both the 143rd wing of the Rhode Island National Guard and its C-130, as well as the Rhode Island Army National Guard’s 1st battalion, 126th aviation regiment are based will be repaved during the next 18 months under a $50.7 million contract recently awarded to J.R. Vinagro.

“The aircraft are being moved to TF Green in case the unit has to fly missions during weather that would preclude them from taking off and landing at Quonset without those precision approaches,” said Major Jarred Rickey, Aviation Assistant Chief of Staff, Rhode Island National Guard in an email.

The National Guard will be accommodated by sending two C-130s to be parked at Green for a duration of the project. In addition, a few tenants of FlightLevel Aviation are being accommodated at nearby airports for hangaring and FBO services, according to John Goodman, RIAC associate vice president of media and public relations who reported on the subject in an email following last Thursday’s RIAC board meeting.

He wrote, “the FBO FlightLevel and RIAC are working closely together with reducing the impacts of the business losses.”

Major Rickey of the National Guard didn’t see the runway project as impeding operations. He pointed out that the C-130’s are designed for short runway takeoffs and landings and that the planes could still use the shorter of the two Quonset runways if required. 

David Preston, a spokesman for the Quonset Development Corporation said “Quonset enthusiastically supports infrastructure improvements to key transportation assets like the airport.”

The cost of the repaving will be evenly split between the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense, Goodman said.

At Thursday’s RIAC meeting, the board applauded chief legal counsel and chief of staff Brittany Morgan for being recognized by Airport Business Magazine’s “40 under 40” as one of the airport industry’s up and coming young professionals. He was presented a congratulatory plaque on behalf of the board.

Iftikhar Ahmad, President and CEO of RIAC gave an upbeat monthly report on RIAC operations.

He said Breeze Airways has announced new nonstop flights to Denver, Colorado, and Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina beginning this May, as well as a BreezeThru flight to San Diego beginning April 30th.

There was no discussion over the status of work on a $100 million south air cargo hub that will accommodate FedEx and UPS operations, currently located on the north side of the airfield along Airport Road.

Mayor Frank Picozzi refused to sign a memorandum of understanding on the development as long as RIAC fails to guarantee that tractor trailers and fleets of delivery vehicles won’t use local roads to access the facility. He wants to see those vehicles on the Airport Connector so that City Centre between Jefferson Boulevard and the Airport develops as a pedestrian friendly corridor. Several developments that have either started or are about to begin promise to create an estimated 800 units of residential housing to the area.

Picozzi said last week he has yet to see designs of a rotary that would enable the larger vehicles to access the connector from airport property.

In her report, Morgan said that in the month of November passenger loads increased from 268,261 in November 2022 to 293,150 in November 2023. Year to date passenger load factors went from 1.5 million in 2022 to 1.6 million in November of last year.