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GENERAL AVIATION  
May | June 2026      AirportImprovement.com
5B2
In an area of upstate New York 
known for horse racing, the team 
at Saratoga County Airport (5B2) 
ran hard to design, plan and construct 
a new terminal, hangar building and 
rehabilitated apron in less than 30 months. 
Why the rush to complete projects not 
on the master plan or updated airport 
layout plan? Because the improvements 
were heavily subsidized by prize money 
from Governor Kathy Hochul’s $230 million 
Upstate Airport Economic Development 
and Revitalization Competition, 
administered by the New York State 
Department of Transportation; and the 
grant requirements included a June 2025 
deadline to prepare for increased traffic 
from the Saratoga Springs horse racing 
season and the temporarily relocated 
Belmont Stakes. 
Together, the projects totaled about $36.3 
million, with $27 million covered by the 
competition award and another $1.9 million 
by FAA Grants. (See Facts and Figures on 
page 51 for other funding details.) 
Members of the project management 
team note that minimizing disruption to 
the community and those living around the 
airport was another major factor driving 
the schedule. 
In addition 
to upgrading 
infrastructure, 
the projects also 
prompted a shift in 
management of the 
county-owned airport 
from North American 
Flight Services, the 
field’s primary fixed base operator, to 
Airport Manager Neil Kelsey, who had 
decades of experience at the FBO. With 
Kelsey at the reins, various project teams 
delivered a new two-story terminal, an 
almost 20,000-square-foot hangar and a 
1.56-acre apron. 
The nearly 21,000-square-foot terminal 
replaced a 100-by-80-foot tin structure 
built in the 1970s. “It required quite a bit of 
maintenance annually, and we needed an 
upgrade,” says Kelsey. 
Even though jet traffic related to horse 
racing June through Labor Day accounts 
for about 70% of the airport’s 50,000 
annual operations, recent upgrades also 
were designed to accommodate other 
users. The airfield’s diverse mix of traffic 
includes smaller general aviation aircraft, 
state police, military personnel undergoing 
helicopter night training, students from 
a helicopter school and 40 to 50 gliders 
from two clubs based on the field.  
In the Money
McFarland Johnson, the airport’s long-time 
consultant, helped assemble its application 
for the state funding competition in 2021.  
“We were all excited about the 
possibility of getting a new building,” 
Saratoga County Airport Enjoys the Win 
of Its New Terminal BY MICHELLE GARDNER
NEIL KELSEY

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