Rendering / Courtesy, PQI, AECOM
A rendering shows the planned entrance to Presque Isle International Airport.
Updated: November 14, 2024
Presque Isle's planned $53M airport terminal is preparing for take-off
Photo / Courtesy, PQI
A JetBlue plane is shown on Sept. 5 at Presque Isle International Airport, where the carrier began service that day. The passenger terminal is seen in in the background.
By William Hall
The passenger terminal at Presque Isle International Airport — a building that dates to the Cold War, more than half a century ago — will be replaced and other upgrades made as part of a $52.6 million overhaul now preparing to break ground.
Maine's northernmost commercial airport, about a mile from downtown Presque Isle, has been looking to modernize for years. Under a master plan developed with the Federal Aviation Administration, the airport began gathering public input and sketching out expansion ideas in 2018.
Nearly 20,000 passengers flew last year through PQI. Operations have simply outgrown the 10,000-square-foot terminal, which was built in 1952 as a fire station for what was then an Air Force base. The building is only half the FAA's recommended size and isn't fully accessible. Passengers have to leave the security area in order to use restrooms or buy concessions.
Plus, PQI has switched to a new airline. JetBlue Airways now provides the airport's commercial flight service under a federally subsidized contract. In June, the New York-based carrier ousted longtime incumbent United Airlines for Presque Isle flights through the U.S. Department of Transportation's Essential Air Service program. In September, JetBlue began daily flights between Presque Isle and Boston.
"The airport is seeing growth and opportunities to push that growth even further that has not been seen since the 1980s or maybe ever," Scott Wardwell, the airport director, told Mainebiz this week.
"With the addition of JetBlue service, we now have an aircraft double the size of the one used in the master plan study. Next year, the aircraft size will go to 140 seats, which will be the largest passenger service aircraft to serve Presque Isle on a regular basis in our history."
As planned, the new terminal will be two stories high with about 30,000 square feet of space. In addition, there will be new amenities for passengers, a new access road and parking areas, a new parking apron for planes, and new, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems. Permitting for the project is already underway, Wardwell said, and construction could start as soon as next April and be completed by October 2026.
Last week, the Presque Isle City Council awarded contracts for two major parts of the airport project. After a competitive request-for-proposals process, A/Z Corp. won a bid to construct the terminal building at a cost of $38.4 million, while Soderberg Construction Co. received a $4.3 million contract to renovate the airport parking apron.
A/Z Corp. is part of Cianbro, Maine's largest construction company, and focuses on construction management. Soderberg is based in Caribou and does a range of road construction and land development work.
Soderberg also got a $5.2 million assignment for site preparation and utility services. Another $4.7 million has been contracted out to Hoyle Tanner & Associates for engineering and subcontractor AECOM for architecture.
Most of the project expenses will be paid by the FAA, and funds from the U.S. Department of Transportation and a variety of grants will also pick up costs. No local taxes are expected to go toward the project, Wardwell said.
He put the airport's reinvention in a broad context.
"I am told that if you look at the total project that this is the largest single project in the history of the city of Presque Isle," Wardwell said. "This is certainly the largest airport project."
Photo / Courtesy, Maine Memory Network, Presque Isle Air Museum
In this historical photo, a Northeast Airlines "Yellow Bird" DC-9 is shown at Presque Isle Airport in about 1967. From 1941 to 1960, the airfield served primarily as a military base.
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