Northern Aroostook Regional Airport

2007 Airport Progress Report

Many may wonder why should we own and maintain an airport, the Northern Aroostook Regional Airport (NARA), in the St. John Valley. My short answer is transportation is a card that levels the playing field when courting economic investment in a global economy, especially for more remote geographic regions. My vision for the past five years has been focused on the goal of “Connecting ‘The Valley’ to the World”.

Another major reason for this connection is the use of the airport to assist local residents. A major part of that is to assist our residents with medical care at larger medical facilities. The best way to get patients to these centers, quickly, efficiently and with proper medical care onboard, is by air. That includes fixed-wing aircrafts and helicopters.

• During the past year, the Northern Aroostook Regional Airport has assisted Life Flight of Maine, the emergency medical helicopter service that services the Northern Maine Medical Center, in 44 operations to get St. John Valley patients to southern hospitals.

• We have also assisted with two fixed-wing jet operations to get patients to Boston hospitals for surgery they needed to recuperate.

• That does not include the 45 Angel Flight missions completed from the airport. More than 90 were scheduled.(an improved instrument approach due to be completed in May 2008 will greatly benefit the Angel Flight pilots in the future)  Angel Flights is a free service offered by pilots, with their own aircrafts, to transport ambulatory patients to medical facilities for special treatments. These volunteer pilots are special people.

Other important services in 2007:

• Homeland Security assistance to the US Border Patrol with 11 helicopter and fixed wing aircraft operations

• Four Maine Forest Service helicopter and fixed wing aircraft operations

• 41 fire patrol flights flown by Valley Air with Aroostook County pilots

• 1,624 other aircraft operations in 2007, an increase of 627 over the 997 operations listed in 2006.

• Our flight school with six students in various stages of their training.

• New England Air Transport our local charter service which can get local groups to their destinations and back in short time to save money and time, especially in the business world.

NARA airport personnel have built a reputation for excellent service. They’ve hosted visitors from Europe and across the United States. I encourage you to check out what our visitors are saying @ http://www.airnav.com/airport/KFVE/A.

We also have new and exciting air transportation options which have developed in the last five years that offer great potential benefit for the St. John Valley. These include, by the end of 2008, facilities to accept Very Light Jets.

Our vision is to attract visitors from all over the world and North America to the Valley, beginning with modest goals. Logically this includes developing a marketing plan. It will be driven by local industry and the development of biathlon among other factors. This includes business and recreation packages tailored to fit specific groups. People who need to do business here, and others, family groups, that want to see our rugged, beautiful wilderness landscape in comfort. Planned activities that most of us take for granted such as sitting around a campfire, hiking our woods and canoeing our rivers and lakes just to name a few.

We are targeting individuals and groups who are affluent by our measure from young urban professionals to seniors from places such as Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Wilmington, Washington DC. And beyond. The new light jets make it possible for us to include reasonably priced air transportation from their backdoor to ours in less than 2 hours in our package.

Let me tell you what has been accomplished to meets these ends in 2007, and what is coming in 2008.

• In 2007 we completed a $2,100,000 project to remove airport ground and tree obstructions to meet Federal Aviation Safety standards. To do this NARA received federal and state grants of $2,047,500. Our local share was $52,500. The project also created a large development site at the end of the runway, including road access from Airport Avenue.

The community wide positive economic impact from this project in part:

• Our local contractor reported a payroll of more than $250,000
• purchased more than 50,000 gallons of fuel from a local supplier
• thousands of dollars in other locally purchased materials
• Meals and lodging for outside subcontractors brought in thousands more
• Our $52,500 investment was returned to our community more than 5 times.

The airport also received two planning grants, $15,000 and $25,000, to complete a feasibility study and secure the DEP permit for the new development site. The study will be completed in early 2008.

In 2008, the airport runway will be rehabilitated at an estimated cost of $1.5 million. The local share of the project, 2.5 percent, is estimated at $37,500.

All this is done with an operations budget of less than $100,000. At the present time, the major income is from a lease with the Northern Aroostook Regional Incinerator, $36,720 per year, and $34,500 from member towns of Frenchville, Fort Kent, Madawaska, St. Agatha and St. John Plantation. These two incomes represent 71 percent of our operating budget.

This funding imbalance is not healthy and must change. The Northern Aroostook Regional Airport Authority is working on shifting the source of operating revenue to lease and service fees generated from the development of airport property. It’s a process that will take time and effort. We thank you for your support to date.

The NARAA board and I thank you for the privilege of serving our friends and neighbors!

David Fernald - Airport Manager

NARAA Board

Paul Bouchard, President - Fort Kent

Richard Dionne, Vice President - Madawaska

Leland Roix, Treasurer - Madawaska

Beurmond Banville, Secretary - St. Agatha

Dave Rossignol - Fort Kent

Brian Therieault - Fort Kent

Don Berube - St John Plantation

Gary Picard - Frenchville

Lloyd Tardif - Madawaska