BIA playing a part in military buildup

Some of the troops participating in the buildup of U.S. military forces in the Mideast have been routed through Bangor International Airport, adding to an already busy summer at the airport.

Tankers of the Air National Guard can be seen and heard at any hour as they use the facilities of the 101st Air Refueling Wing at the airport. Now and again the high-pitched roar of a fighter pierces Bangor’s airspace.

Troops being flown through Bangor on their way overseas have kept airport officials busy.

President George Bush announced the “purely defensive” military operation in the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, Aug. 8. The U.S. Army has thousands of troops on the ground in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, U.S. military planners are preparing to place 250,000 soldiers into the region, if necessary.

Some of those soldiers have flown through Bangor, which has a two-mile runway and is the easternmost fully equipped airport in the continental United States. Since Aug. 8, BIA has handled 16 flights that were Department of Defense charters.

Some of those flights carried cargo and others troops. Airport officials estimate that 3,500 troops have flown through Bangor. Records indicate that they were leaving the country by Bangor on their way across the Atlantic Ocean and headed at least as far as Europe.

The proprietor of the Red Baron Lounge in the airport terminal, William Gardner, says bar business has not increased appreciably during the past nine days. He did say the troops, soldiers and Marines, were a well-behaved lot.

One part of the airport that has seen a jump in the volume of its business is fuel sales. In the past nine days, BIA has sold 260,000 gallons of fuel to military charter flights.

During the 31 days of July, total fuel sales handled by BIA amounted to 4 million gallons.

Additionally, every passenger who comes through Bangor on a commercial aircraft gives the airport credits in the Airport Improvement Program. The federal entitlement programs doles out dollars based on the number of passengers an airport handles. It is designed to preserve and enhance the facility.

Matching the jump in sales has been a jump in the price of aviation fuel. In the two weeks since Iraq invaded Kuwait, oil prices have risen dramatically. Those increases have been passed down to the gas pumps, for both aviation and automotive fuel.

BIA pumps Exxon products, and the company has increased its prices three times, a total of nine cents, which has been passed on to the customer.

Unless they arrived to find a terminal full of soldiers, passengers on commercial carriers would be hard put to notice any difference. The Federal Aviation Administration has handed down no mandates to step up security to protect against possible terrorist acts.

The last time the FAA told airports to step up security against the possibility of terrorists was in 1984 during the Los Angeles Olympics.