PRESQUE ISLE – Regional airports in Maine face some tough challenges, but in those challenges there are also opportunities.

That was the message David Fernald, president of the Maine Airport Managers Association, presented to a crowd of about 50 Thursday night at the Northeastland Hotel in Presque Isle during the Aroostook County meeting of the Maine Better Transportation Association.

Fernald, who also serves as manager for the Northern Aroostook Regional Airport in Frenchville, spoke on “Challenges and Opportunities for Maine’s Regional Airports.” Maine has 36 public use airports and 30 of them fall under the “regional” category, or as Fernald put it, the “noncommercial service airports.”

Fernald explained Thursday before his presentation that the six commercial airports in Maine receive guaranteed funding from the Federal Aviation Administration while the others get an entitlement “that is not etched in stone.” And that’s just one of the challenges facing Maine’s smaller airports.

Other challenges include the fact that there is “never enough money” to fund and operate capital-intensive airports; that the facilities don’t see a large amount of daily activity; and that those with oversight of regional airports – usually town managers – sometimes don’t understand airports.

“As we talk about the challenges, though, we need to not get so bogged down by the negatives that we forget there’s a silver lining,” Fernald told the crowd.

Regional airports, he said, provide needed, sometimes life-saving services for communities.

For example, he said, regional airports play a central role when it comes to medical emergencies. Rural communities typically have limited health care facilities and are more than an hour away from a large hospital.

“When there’s an emergency and someone needs to get to Eastern Maine Medical Center [in Bangor], or Maine Medical Center in Portland, or to Boston, air is the best way to get there,” he said.

Smaller airports also help with local economic development. Businesses in nearby communities depend on air service for their needs, their clients’ needs, and other businesses that come to serve them.

“Air access is very important to the business community simply as a time issue,” he said. “We know that more so, perhaps, than anybody here in Aroostook County.”

Fernald said most pilots get their start at regional airports. Those who dream of flying spend $6,000 to $8,000 to earn their private pilot certificate and some of them go on to flying careers.

“That system is fed by pilots from small-town airports,” Fernald said.

Such airports also provide opportunities when it comes to scenic flying, tourism opportunities, and aircraft storage.

“The reality is that in every challenge there are opportunities to make it work but it takes people with willingness and vision and creativity to think outside the box,” Fernald said.

Fernald said that in Frenchville, with its major business in town downsizing and with the effects of out-migration and an aging population being felt, officials are responding to the challenges.

“Our approach is we live in a pristine area, and it’s a huge, untapped [resource]. So we’re looking at short- and long-term planning to tap into it,” Fernald said. “We’re trying to build on bedrock and not on shifting sand.”