By Alex Malm
During the Oct.6 Londonderry Planning Board meeting a public hearing for a non-binding review and discussion regarding plans for a new air cargo facility at the Manchester Airport and partial relocation of Green Drive.
It was explained by Londonderry Town Planer Colleen Mailloux that there is an agreement in place that when the airport has a major project that there is a non-binding review so the Town can hold a public hearing and so the Planning Board can give comments or ideas for it.
“Its discussion only at this point,” said Mailloux.
Jenna Dakalovic, the assistant airport director for properties and contracts for the Airport explained that the project is important because there is a greater volume of cargo at airports since the pandemic, and more of a demand for airports to have more room for cargo planes.
“It represents a substantial opportunity to increase the airport’s cargo capacity,” said Dakalovic.
She said that they expect the demand for cargo to stay the same or increase because of e-commerce, and right now they are at their maximum for cargo.
“Our current facilities are at 100 percent capacity for cargo,” said Dakalovic.
As part of the project they will be building a 65, 000 square feet facility which will be leased to the company Aeroterm, who will then be subleasing the facility to cargo plane companies.
It was also explained that if they get more tenants interested in sub leasing space there they may expand the building to up to 100,000 square feet. At first they would have three parking spaces for cargo planes but could expand to four spaces if they have the demand for it.
It was pointed out that they didn’t want to build a single-use facility so it can ultimately be used for many different things in the future if needed.
It was also explained by Brian Smith, an engineer for the project, that in order for the project to be completed they will need to relocate a portion of Green Drive.
Ex Officio Deb Paul asked how many more planes and how many more trucks do they anticipate coming in now that they will have a cargo facility.
Dakalovic said that it would vary and any given tennant would have about one or two flights per day most likely.
She said that the planes would be smaller than FedEx and UPS planes.
Paul also asked how much more deicing of the planes there will be, pointing out that water contamination can happen from the deicing.
“I am concerned about the water in this Town,” she said.
Smith said that it would depend on how many planes that come there.
“If there are more aircrafts there will be more deicing,” Smith said.
One question that was asked by Londonderry Planning Board member Ann Chiampa was in regards to noise.
She asked if they have any quiet hours or if planes are allowed to fly in and out of the airport 24-7.
“We don’t have assigned quiet hours,” said Dakalovic.
Londonderry Planning Board Chairman Arthur Rugg, who said that he lives on the flight path said that the planes have become quieter over the years, from his observations.
“It’s quieter now than it was five, six and definitely ten years ago,” he said.
The project is expected to be completed in October of 2022.