The Wiscasset Airport is a home base for many visiting and local pilots and its manager anticipates business there will continue to grow since the town took over all operations there.

Over the past several months the Wiscasset Airport has run without a fixed base operator, an independent business that sold fuel and rented hangar space to individual pilots and plane owners. Manager Irvin Deck still sells fuel and rents space from the municipal airport, but is bringing in more money to the town, he said.

While the airport has yet to break even (residents pay some funds to support the airport), Deck anticipates favorable weather will eventually bring the airport a small profit.

People use the airport for a number of reasons: Coast Guard helicopter pilots land there, in route to other destinations along the coast; business executives fly in to visit young relatives at nearby Camp Chewonki; private pilots offer charter service up and down the coast and use the Wiscasset Airport as a point of operations; companies that fly historic planes as entertainment for large crowds use the airport when they visit Maine; and many individuals from places near and far away who fly their own planes land at Wiscasset Airport, sometimes just to buy a lobster roll.

“I’ll bet we get 50 people a year who fly up just to go to Red’s Eats,” Deck said.

Deck believes business at the airport will pick up. Favorable weather conditions aside, he has dropped the fuel price down below what competitors are asking and changes he has implemented make it easier for people to visit the area.

The airport now has an airplane mechanic on site, who rents a maintenance hangar to work on planes, a service previously unavailable.

Since the airport is able to buy more fuel all at once, about 8000 gallons versus 2000 gallons at most, the town saved money on delivery costs. Deck said this allowed him to drop the fuel price.
“We figured our market share would go up,” he said. “And it has. We’re right where we were hoping we’d be.”

Deck estimates the airport will sell about 40,000 gallons of fuel this year (the average is 33,000 gallons per year). Airport revenue comes in from land leased to private hangar space and property tax revenue, about $24,000 per year, goes to the town. In addition, the airport is a draw for many pilots due to low fuel prices.

The airport has had a loaner car for visitors who fly in for the day, but a new deal with Newcastle Chrysler Dodge will enable pilots and passengers to rent cars and extend their visit. According to Deck, the agreement will ensure that the airport has access to as many rental cars as customers need, and the number of fly-in visits demonstrates a need.

The Texas Flying Legends Museum, a squadron of World War II-era war planes and enthusiastic crew based out of Ellington Field in Houston, Texas, will fly into the Wiscasset Airport on a number of occasions this year. Deck said the airport is their permanent summer home and plans for a museum at the airport are under way.

The calendar on the Flying Legends’ website (www.flyingfreedom.us) shows the planes will land in Wiscasset on Thursday, July 19.

On Aug. 11 and 12, the Texas Flying Legends Museum will leave from the airport to fly WW II-era aircraft over the Shipyard Cup sailboat races in Boothbay Harbor. The crew has already started the summer season with an airshow in Bangor. In August, Wiscasset area residents and visitors will have a chance to see the powerful war birds, with names such as Whistling Death, Aleutian Tiger and Betty’s Dream land and roar off from Wiscasset Airport.

Oct. 6 the airport will host Wiscasset’s annual Community Festival and Airshow.