MANCHESTER, N.H. – Following a positive 2025 recap report a month earlier, Manchester-Boston Regional Airport Director Tom Malafronte returned to the Aldermanic Chambers in March to present a proposal that would improve the airport’s ability to retain recently added carriers by restructuring its debts.
In a presentation to the Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen’s Special Committee on Airport Activities, Malafronte told the board that the airport is looking to modify its debt repayment schedule for 2027 and 2028 due to spikes that force the airport to repay a total of $16.5 and $14 million respectively. In comparison, the airport owes debtors just under $10 million this year and currently owes no more than $8 million after 2028, with the conclusion of a 2020 bond in 2035 dropping the debt load to just over $4 million per year in 2036.
“Airlines like stability, and they like to know that there going to have a reasonable debt structure going forward,”
The spike in 2027 and 2028 comes from amounts due on a 2018 bond, which Malafronte hopes to spread out to 2036 to avoid those spikes, which could provide a shock to newer carriers at the airport. After several years, agreements limiting fees for carriers beginning to bring flights to Manchester sunset and Malafronte fears that the end of those agreements plus additional expenses from helping the airport pay for its bond obligations could convince the carriers to leave the market.
This is not the first time in recent memory that the airport has sought to restructure its debts, with a similar effort in 2020 allowing the airport to engage in its moves to lure new carriers to Manchester following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Malafronte added that no additional bonds are expected to be needed in the near future and that no action is needed by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen until July 1.