WHITE LAKE –– Back in the 1960s, the aviation industry saw tremendous growth and people could fly to vacation venues in less time than they could drive to the Catskills.

“Little did we know that all our tourism was going to go with it,” explained Sullivan County International Airport Superintendent James Arnott.

Reacting to this, the powers that be at the time [the County’s Board of Supervisors] obtained an FAA Grant and built an airport equal distance from the Concord and Grossinger’s hotels.

Today, that airport still sits on a hilltop in the Town of Bethel on 600-plus acres of land.

County officials hosted a tour of the airport on Sunday afternoon, highlighting recent improvements and the growth it has experienced.

Renovations (with the help of grant monies) in recent years that have been completed, are ongoing or planned for the future include replacing runway lights (2017), replacing taxiway lights (2018), replacing 10 hangar doors (2019), rehabilitation of the main runway (2020), a new fuel farm (2021), rehabilitation of the taxiway (2021), rehabilitation of a five-bay hangar (2021) and construction of a 10-bay T hangar (2023).

The airport offsets operational and capital improvement costs with revenue through lease, rentals and fees; grants; federal airport improvement program and New York State Department of Transportation (DOT) monies, and some local investment.

Good news
Speaking of county airport revenues, they’re up.

Arnott explained that before 2014, the airport used to bring in about 16 percent revenue [$63,389], and in 2020, they’ve surged up to 57.5 percent [$389,415].

A large factor in the revenue rise is the sale of jet fuel. Arnott, in recent years, made the suggestion that the airport should become the fuel dealer. The county legislature agreed, and the airport now buys fuel, stores it and delivers it to aircrafts.

That decision has paid off. Just recently, the airport sold $99,000 worth of jet fuel in July, and has currently sold $98,000 this month.

In addition to revenue growth, the New York State DOT does an economic impact study of airports across the state each decade, with the most recent data available being from 2010.

That data showed Orange County Airport in Montgomery had an economic impact of $5,942,300. Sullivan County International Airport, however, had an economic impact of $26,473,200 million.

Plus, these numbers were calculated before the opening of tourist attractions like Resorts World Catskills and the Kartrite Resort and Indoor Waterpark.

More to come
Outside investors have also taken notice of the airport’s potential.

As previously reported in Friday’s Democrat, a developer from Quebec is currently looking at the feasibility of a project on land at the airport currently deemed unbuildable.

After doing their due diligence, if the project is deemed feasible, he’d enter into a 60-year lease with the county, with the total value of the lease being $115 million.

He’d be given a credit of up to $36 million for infrastructure improvements to include but not be limited to water and sewer connections being made available not only to the proposed development but to the entire airport. So the county would still benefit from roughly $80 million from the lease, if the project comes to fruition.

In the meantime, Division of Public Works Commissioner Ed McAndrew said they are actively trying to market the facility, primarily to small and midsize jet aircrafts and trying to get some of them to base themselves out of the county airport.

“In the past few years, we've certainly seen a lot more air traffic,” said McAndrew.

The county is currently able to receive grants from the state and the federal governments for capital improvements at the airport and will continue to do so.

Legislator Joe Perrello, who chairs the Sullivan County Legislature’s Public Works Committee said, “We are reinvesting in our airport, because it’s a hidden jewel that not everybody has.”