Gander airport getting $10M upgrade

The Gander International Airport is set to receive $10-million worth of upgrades.

Ottawa, the province and the airport authority are sharing the cost.

Ganders three-kilometre runway is one of the longest in Atlantic Canada but it hasn't been seriously overhauled in 23 years.

Airport official Stephen Burbridge said cracks are starting to become a concern.

"We don't want a plane falling into a pot hole and we don't want a piece of asphalt going into a plane engine causing a million dollars in damage," he said.

The money will also be used to make the runway10 metres wider and update lighting at the facility.

Chief Financial Officer Darren Dalton says the freeze and thaw conditions of a typical Newfoundland winter make smaller annual repairs expensiveup to $300,000.

"It's in really bad shape, another year or two it would have to be shut down so this financing couldn't come at a better time for us," he said.

Construction is planned to start mid-May and continue until October.