14 Wing Greenwood to host civilian aircraft after Waterville Airport closes

The Waterville Airport in Kings County closes at the end of the month, and those who own aircraft and hangars there are moving to a new home.

The Freedom Aviation Society, which represents pilots and plane owners moving from Waterville, signed a temporary agreement with the Department of National Defence to set up a civilian aviation operation at 14Wing Greenwood.

Paul Easson,an aircraft owner and chair of the society, saida final, long-term agreement is still being finalized with DND, but he expects hangars and other buildings will be constructedat Greenwood over the summer.

Easson saidhe hopes it will be fully operational by the end of October.

"Most of the negotiations are complete, it's just a matter of getting the parties to agree to the final document," Easson told CBC Radio's Information Morning.

"I don't see that permanent arrangement being very long coming."

Easson saidthere will be hangars at Greenwoodfor between 15 and 20 civilian aircraft, the same number of planes coming over from Waterville.

"It's a wonderful facility, far beyond anything that the county could afford [at Waterville], or that we could afford on our own," said Easson.

"The possibilities are greater at Greenwood than at any other option we could have taken advantage of. When you have two runways that are 8,000 feet long and 200 feet wide and built to handle the heaviest military aircraft around, you got lots of possibilities."

Lots of possibilities

Easson saidhe thinks more civilian pilots and aviation people will be interested in using 14Wing Greenwood once the civilian operation is up and running.

"The other thing we have opportunities for is more commercial aviation, not necessarily passenger service, but we have more opportunities because of the runways at Greenwood as well."

In late January, the council of the Municipality of the County ofKings approved the society's 10-year business plan to run a civilian aviation operation at Greenwood.

Council also approved a $1.147-million funding grant to the society for infrastructure and construction costs associated with setting up the civilian air facility at Greenwood.

Aircraft and aviation equipment at Waterville will be moved out before the March 31 closure.

Kings County still has plans to sell the Waterville Airport lands to Michelin, which says it wantsthe flexibility to expand its neighbouring plant.