Lebanon Regional Airport saw its first 75-seat commercial plane land at a newly expanded 5,500-foot runway 59 years ago this month.
About 25 passengers flew into Lebanon on a Northeast Airlines Douglas DC-6B to great fanfare from airline officials and local politicians, who predicted the airport would prove an economic boon to the regional economy, according to a September 1960 article in the Valley News.
About 750 people gathered for a ceremony to mark the new runway, which was paid for using a combination of federal, state and local contributions.
U.S. Sen. Norris Cotton, R-N.H., praised Lebanon and surrounding communities for supporting the airport, according to the article. In a short speech, he compared communities without an airport to those left without a railroad stop in the 1800s.
The late senator, who resided for much of his life in Lebanon, was a longtime proponent of the airport and sponsored legislation to create the Lebanon Regional Airport Authority, an interstate commission charged with running and maintaining the West Lebanon facility.
To bolster the airport’s finances, the authority sought contributions from neighboring towns, such as Hanover and Woodstock, and provided those towns a say in its operations.
But the arrangement broke down as towns declined to provide funds to the airport, and the authority was dissolved in 1978, according to Roger Carroll’s Lebanon, 1761-1994: The Evolution of a Resilient New Hampshire City.
Since then, several airlines have served Lebanon, including Northeast Airlines, Air New England, Mohawk, Command, Precision and Delta Executive Airlines.
Cape Air began flying out of what is now known as Lebanon Municipal Airport in 2008, and offers four daily, nonstop, roundtrip flights to Boston’s Logan International Airport and two daily flights to and from Westchester County Airport in suburban New York.
Cape Air averages more than 10,000 enplanements at Lebanon every year, down from a high in Lebanon of 52,929 recorded in 1993, before the rise of Manchester-Boston Regional Airport.
“People used to view the airport as a playground for the rich folks,” Lebanon chief air controller Braxton Freeman recalled in an interview. “I think townspeople thought it was expensive and an unnecessary asset that they had to pay for.”
But Freeman, who came to the airport in 2002 and is employed by the private firm Midwest Air Traffic Control, said perception of the airport appears to be reversing. (Lebanon’s air traffic control tower was privatized in 1997 as part of an effort to reduce costs at the nation’s smallest airports.)
As passengers continue to fly with Cape Air, they see the utility in flying to Boston and New York instead of taking the bus or driving, he said. And business executives, health care providers and educators make use of the facility, which connects Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Dartmouth College to large cities, Freeman said.
“These professionals are coming because there is air transport available,” he said. “It brings a lot of credibility to the community, having access to a well-run airport.”
Tim Camerato can be reached at tcamerato@vnews.com or 603-727-3223.