Bradley International Airport Officials Drawing Up New Lease Agreements With Airlines

Bradley International Airport officials are working on new contracts with airlines that would start in July.

The new contracts, will be two-year agreements, which are significantly shorter than the 30-year agreements that had been used in the past, officials said.

Mark Daley, Bradley’s chief financial officer, said the writing of the new lease agreements is about 95 percent completed and should go out to the airlines in the next few days. The current agreements end in June.

Daley outline the new agreements to the airport’s board of director at its monthly meeting Thursday.,

 The agreements will be with the six major airlines which lease space at the airport, he said. The major airline gate-holders are Delta, Southwest, United/Continental, US Airways, American, and JetBlue.

“It’s an excellent operating vehicle,” Daley said. “It allows the airlines to add capacity back to the airport.”

The shorter agreements give the airlines greater flexibility and should help them grow their businesses at Bradley, Daley said. Short-term lease agreements have become the trend in the airline industry.

The airlines lease their space at $62.97 per square foot, which is competitive with airports in Rhode Island and New York, Daley said. The amount of space each airline leases at Bradley varies, but each have thousands of feet at Bradley.

The contacts will also creates a per use fee for the airlines for additional gates. When a plane temporarily uses additional gates for $340 per use, Daley said.  It allows them to have more flights without having to hold major leases on gates, he added.

“As they add flights they can use the gates until they build more business to expand,” Daley said.

The agreements also outline who is responsible for what maintenance, such as the airport guaranteeing that it will remain open 24 hours, seven days a week, Daley said.

In other news, Eric Waldron, airport administrator, told the board of directors that Bradley saw its passengers increas by 6 percent in April, marking the tenth consecutive month with growth.

"The rebound continues," Waldron said.