Checkpoint gateway to future
Albany International Airport will power the Capital Region’s economy; here’s how
Phil Calderone has big plans for Albany International Airport, from attracting new air service to introducing technologies that could be adopted by airports worldwide to make travel safer and more secure.
But first, he must fix the checkpoint.
Calderone turned to researchers at General Electric’s research center in Niskayuna, which has been working on solutions to ease the crowding at the Transportation Security Administration’s checkpoint to shorten lines and give passengers more space to social distance during the pandemic. In coming weeks, new technologies will be introduced to do just that.
GE Research, along with GE Aviation, already developed a smartphone app that tells travelers how recently such commonly touched surfaces as ticket counters and elevator buttons have been cleaned. The app is drawing interest from other airports as a tool to reassure travelers.
The updated master plan proposes a widening of the bridge that connects the original north parking garage to the terminal, widening it into an extension of the building to provide more space for the checkpoint. Travelers using the recently completed south parking garage would be directed along a route to the expanded checkpoint.
Also near the top of the priority list is additional hangar space and increased cargo space, the latter reflecting the shift to online commerce that occurred during the pandemic. At one point before Christmas, UPS had quadrupled its scheduled daily flights into the airport. An existing air cargo building in the airport’s northeast quadrant could be expanded. The largest regularly scheduled aircraft at Albany are the Boeing 757s that Fedex and UPS use to carry freight.
Too many local companies still truck their highvalue products to other airports for shipment. Calderone would like to see those air shipments originate here.
Other goals: Expand aircraft maintenance facilities and, importantly, provide the intense training to qualify individuals to become aircraft mechanics. These positions, which can pay $35 to $40 an hour, would provide a path to the middle class for local residents.
United Express carrier Commutair, American Eagle carrier Piedmont, and regional carrier Cape Air all have existing maintenance facilities in Albany that they want to expand and such a training program would address the nationwide shortage of mechanics.
Calderone also wants to attract more corporate aircraft, particularly from crowded downstate airports, to be based here, and has identified the southeast quadrant as a potential location for corporate aviation hangars, as well as an airport business park.
Calderone has created a regional advisory committee to help update the master plan. The presidents of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the University at Albany and Hudson Valley Community College are members. So are business and chamber of commerce officials, officials representing the region’s transit authority and its port, and elected officials including the majority leader of the U.S.
Senate.
The Albany County Airport Authority has established a website, Alb-master-plan.com, to update the public on the plan’s progress and to solicit their comments and suggestions.
Calderone, at the initial meeting of the advisory committee, described why this effort is critical to the region’s future.
“A few days ago during his confirmation hearing, Secretary Buttigieg said we have a generational opportunity to change our infrastructure and to take transportation to the next level — a level that makes people’s lives better; makes it easier to get where you’re going; easier to get a job and easier for communities to thrive,” Calderone said. “The Secretary’s comments recognize the vital socioeconomic role transportation hubs, like airports, play as both nucleus and catalyst for the growth and development of communities.
“In fact,” he added, “a seminal study by the U.S. Department of Commerce on causal factors for regional economic vitality listed air service as the leading factor for regional growth and development.”
The airport’s attraction as a magnet to lure corporations whose employees depend on air travel has been increasing in recent years. Companies such as Globalfoundries depend heavily on the airport, while medical instruments make Angiodynamics several years ago relocated to Latham from the Glens Falls are in part to be closer to scheduled air service.
Its proximity to the airport was also a draw when financial services firm Ayco chose a Latham site for its new headquarters.
The airport is seeking new flights post-pandemic. Allegiant announced last week that it will launch twice-weekly flights to Nashville.
“The airlines right now are getting ready to be aggressive with scheduling,” said Matt Cannon, the airport’s director of development and government affairs. “We want to be part of that.”
CHA is heading a team that also includes Jacobsen/daniels and Gensler in coming up with new designs that would improve the terminal and concourse areas.
Among the likely changes to gates: Creating
“dwell” areas, said John Delbalso, assistant airport manager, with socially distanced seating and room to roam, replacing so-called holding areas that had far fewer seats in a limited space.
“People can stay in their area, have lunch and still see their gate,” said Jeremy Martelle, the CHA study coordinator.
The airport early on was a technology innovator, with iris scans that gave employees access to certain areas. Calderone want to make the airport “smart,” with technologies not only to keep travelers safe and secure, but to smooth their passage through the terminal.
He touts the airport’s impact, supporting 9,000 jobs and $1 billion in economic activity. And he seeks to leverage “smart airport technologies, biometrics, blockchain, artificial intelligence, robotics, and more,” he told the advisory committee.
“Opportunities to promote equity and inclusiveness to insure that all communities, particularly under-served communities, benefit from the planning process and the Airport’s impact on the economic structure of the region, and opportunities created by a pandemic that has forever changed the aviation industry and the world as we knew it.
“It is a moment,” Calderone said, “that requires imagination, vision, strategic planning and a concentrated effort by community leaders to help us develop the next chapter for this airport’s development and success and its symbiotic role in the development and success of this region.”