PRESQUE ISLE – The twin-engine plane that provides flights from Presque Isle to Bangor no longer will have to be ferried to New York or Virginia for minor repairs because of a $1.6 million grant the Northern Maine Regional Airport received from the Maine Department of Transportation.

The grant, which was allocated as part of this year’s transportation bond, will fund the design and construction of a corporate aircraft hangar at the Presque Isle airport, according to Scott Wardwell, airport manager.

The hangar, which has been in the works for several years, will provide a heated space for the maintenance and overnight storage of corporate aircraft, including U.S. Air’s Saab 340, in which the Presque Isle-Bangor flights are conducted, Wardwell said Monday.

Currently, none of the hangars at the airport are large enough to fit a Saab 340, he said.

The building was slated to be 120 feet by 120 feet and 38 feet high in the city’s original feasibility study, but Wardwell said those dimensions may change because officials are looking at constructing the building at a different location, with different costs associated with the location.

The hangar will increase passenger comfort level and reduce maintenance problems because the aircraft will be kept in a heated space, Wardwell said.

It also will allow U.S. Air to perform more repairs on its plane in Presque Isle, instead of having it ferried out to Albany, N.Y. or Manassas, Va., which will make air service more dependable and cost effective, he said.

Though U.S. Air is not helping to fund the construction of the hangar, once the company starts using the building, it will have to pay rent, Wardwell said. He said rent prices have not been determined yet.

Construction on the building is expected to get under way in May 2005 and be completed by the fall of 2005. In the next year, local officials will focus on the building design. The city will put a building contract out to bid by this spring or summer, Wardwell said.