The Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport’s terminal expansion is expected to begin in September, an airport official said Thursday.
The airport board approved almost $13.6 million in construction-related contracts at a meeting.
In a separate development after the meeting, one board member, Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak acknowledged he may apply to become the airport’s next executive director.
The project will expand the 130,000-square-foot terminal by about 10,000 square feet.
The new space will add room for passengers to line up for the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint. Among other things, that will help to create space between passengers during future pandemics, an airport official has said.
“We're modernizing and updating the (passenger) exit lane,” interim executive director Stephen Mykulyn said. “Since we're a little congested at the checkpoint right now and there's some cross traffic ... in order to exit, it becomes much more intuitive exiting through the new exit lane.”
Expansion explained
The restructured exit lane will also create a lounge for families and friends waiting for arriving passengers, Mykulyn said.
Construction is expected to take 16 months, he said. The project won’t start until the fall because the airport must confirm grants expected to pay for the project.
The contracts went to:
- D&M Construction Unlimited, Inc., Dalton, general construction, $9,617,000.
- Scranton Electric Heating & Cooling Systems, Inc., Throop, mechanical construction, $903,003, and plumbing, $428,236.
- McFarland Johnson Inc., Binghamton, N.Y., construction administration and observation, $2,605,266.
The board hired McFarlane Johnson in April 2023 to design the project for $1,296,605.
The Federal Aviation Administration and state Department of Transportation are kicking in most of the money with the airport contributing a small percentage from a fee on passenger tickets.
Business is up
In other business, the board heard air service development manager Beth Coslett say 21,916 people flew out of the airport in March, up 2.1% from the previous March.
Coslett pointed out that’s the second-best March since at least 1985. The record is 25,431 in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic decimated air travel.
It was the first monthly increase from the previous year since September.
Chermak: 'It'd be a tough decision'
As for Chermak’s interest in running the airport, the commissioner at first only acknowledged rumors he’s interested.
“That is a rumor,” Chermak said. “Let it at that.”
Asked if he applied, he said, “Not yet.”
He declined to say if he would.
“Put it this way, everything's on the table at all times,” he said. “I don't even want to talk about it.”
Asked what would qualify him to run an airport, Chermak said only, “I don’t know, we’ll have to see.”
“I like being a commissioner, so it'd be a tough decision.”
The board appointed Mykulyn as interim director last month to temporarily replace Carl Beardsley, the director who led the airport to record performance levels for more than a decade.
At the same time, the board hired ADK Consulting & Executive Search to help find Beardsley’s replacement at a cost of $47,574. An ADK official said the airport could have a new director by July.
Mykulyn, who is considering applying, said he did not know who applied, but said the application deadline is May 10.
Beardsley took sabbatical leave in November for undisclosed reasons with airport co-solicitor Don Frederickson saying he could not discuss why because he couldn’t discuss “personnel and health issues.”
After three months of waiting to learn if he would return, Chermak said the airport had to move on.
