Burlington airport

flyers decrease

SOUTH BURLINGTON — Passengers flying out of Vermont’s largest airport were down in October by more than 10 percent from the same month a year earlier.

That’s according to statistics released by Burlington International Airport, which says 54,916 people boarded planes there in October. That was down from 61,092 in October of 2011.

Outgoing traffic was up slightly for the first five months of this year over the same period of 2011, but has been down in June, July, August, September and October. October saw the biggest drop over the same month a year earlier.

The number of passengers flying out of Burlington has been in decline since peaking at more than 708,000 in 2009, with about 648,000 boarding planes at the airport last year.



Panel to review

airport proposal

WEST DOVER — A southern Vermont entrepreneur is considering a plan to buy and renovate the defunct Mount Snow Airport and expand it so it would be accessible to private jets.

But noise and traffic has some local residents cautious about the plan by Jim Barnes, the owner of the Hermitage Club and Inn.

“Some were opposed to the airport,” Dover Town Clerk Andy McLean told the Brattleboro Reformer.

Reopening and expanding the airport, located next to the Mount Snow Golf Course, would require work to re-surface the area as well as renovations of a building, aircraft hangers and renovations to the lighting system.

A committee is being formed to review information and discuss long-term and short-term impacts the airport may have on the area. The board will then decide whether to support the proposal.

“We will look at decibel levels, impact on the economy, pollution and lighting,” said Select Board member Nona Monis. “Then we will present the data to the Select Board.”

— The Associated Press