Introducing Leahy BTV: Burlington’s Airport Gets a New Name, a New Airline and Upgrades 

In 1920, just a few years after the Wright brothers’ famous flight, Burlington opened an airport on 100 acres of farmland off Williston Road. Its first runway was a strip of grass.

Burlington’s airport looks a little different today.

It’s grown to become the second busiest in the region — behind Boston’s — when it comes to the number of takeoffs and landings that take place there. In addition to commercial and private planes, military aircraft from the Vermont Air and Army National Guard bases use the runways, as do aircraft owned and built by Beta Technologies, which is headquartered next to the terminal. Two more Beta buildings, including a brand-new, 355,000-square-foot production facility, occupy the south end of the property.

There, Beta is racing to pioneer electric aircraft for the next generation of air travel.

And the airport has a brand-new, next-generation name to go with it — Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport, though most of us will likely use the short version, Leahy BTV.

The designation honors senator Patrick Leahy, who retired in January after a remarkable 48 years representing Vermont in the U.S. Senate. The former senator and his supporters celebrated with a ceremony on October 19.

At the ceremony, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger said of the senator, “He has shaped the laws of our country with great integrity and moral strength — and shown me and countless others what good government and thoughtful governance can do to make the lives of the people we serve better, safer and more just.”

This is a fitting moment to rechristen Burlington’s century-old airport: Over the next few years, it will undergo a major overhaul and transition to a more efficient, more sustainable future.

Director of aviation Nic Longo is excited for what’s to come. “Our 100-plus-year history of innovation within aviation and air travel will continue to fuel our progress for the next century to come under the name Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport. We'll see about $140 million in improvements over the next three years, which is just awesome,” he said.

Why Leahy BTV

Longo pointed out that getting an airport named after you is a very big deal: “Honestly, to me, it's maybe one of the biggest honors ever.”

It puts Leahy on par with national figures, including general William Mitchell, known as the father of the U.S. Air Force, for whom Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport is named; president Ronald Reagan, whose namesake airport is in Washington, D.C.; and president John F. Kennedy, who inspired the New York airport now known simply as “JFK.”

As Senate president pro tempore from 2012 to 2015 and then again from 2021 to 2023, Leahy was third in the line of presidential succession. He’s also the third-longest-serving senator in history. He took office shortly after president Richard Nixon resigned in 1974. He had a prominent role on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which vets nominees to the Supreme Court, and, in fact, voted on all nine of the current justices.

As Leahy prepared to depart the Senate, he sat down for an interview with Judy Woodruff of "PBS NewsHour."

“When I came in, I was the only Democrat ever elected in Vermont's history and the youngest person ever,” he said. “Mr. Republican — senator Stafford, Bob Stafford — was the senior senator. He took me under his wing. Both he and his wife became dearest of friends.

“And he urged me to meet and talk with both Democrats and Republicans. And he also taught me the same thing that [Senate majority] leader [Mike] Mansfield did: You always keep your word.”

Leahy kept his word when it came to championing his small state in the Senate. Mayor Weinberger announced the airport honor during his State of the City address in April, noting that Leahy has earned this accolade by helping make the airport "an economic engine for our region.” One of Leahy’s final acts as a senator was directing $34 million in federal funds to the airport’s renovation and expansion.

The economic impact of the airport is multidimensional. It obviously affects tourism: People fly into the airport, book a hotel room, eat in local restaurants and shop for gifts on the Church Street Marketplace. Then there are the 1,000-plus local jobs the airport supports.

Leahy has always understood there’s more to it than that, as he explained in a video celebrating the airport’s 100th anniversary, in 2020.

“Every time I’m on the plane, there are businesspeople or academics on the plane from the Burlington area,” he said. “They’re going to Washington. They’re going to New York. They’re going wherever else on business. And I’ve had so many tell me that they can have their businesses here because they’ve got good air service.”

Evolution of Leahy BTV

The airport has had to evolve considerably over the years to serve the region. Some things are noticeable to airline passengers, such as the recent construction of a new wing, which now houses a new and improved security checkpoint.

If you’ve packed liquids or your laptop in your carry-on bag, you’ll be excited to hear that you don’t have to remove them anymore, thanks to the new state-of-the-art scanning equipment.

The new wing was part of a terminal integration project that connected the North and South terminals. It includes expanded space for concessions, such as Hudson News, and more room for travelers to spread out at the airport’s busiest gate, where 200-passenger planes load and unload.

Other improvements are less noticeable, though no less essential. Longo explained that the airport is upgrading its “apron” — basically, the tarmac where planes load and unload. “It's more of a parking lot, if you will, but there’s just so much more to it because of the weight requirements and the depth of the concrete and asphalt that we have to do,” Longo said. There are also new taxiways and runway repairs.

Leahy helped secure federal funds to help with all those projects, and there’s more to come, including a new building for the North Terminal, which should break ground next summer. It will replace the long, narrow hallway on the second floor where travelers currently cluster while waiting for their flights.

These improvements are timely in welcoming Breeze Airways, which will begin direct service to both Tampa (TPA) and Orlando (MCO), Fla., in 2024. By 2026, boarding those flights will be a dramatically more comfortable experience.

Reducing Leahy BTV’s Carbon Footprint

Flying out of Leahy BTV will also be better for the environment. The airport will be installing geothermal heating and cooling in the new North Terminal, Longo said, and it will have “as much solar as possible” on the roof.

Concrete and steel add to the carbon footprint of the building, so some of that will be replaced with mass timber, a renewable resource.

“The concept is to get as close to net zero as possible,” Longo said.

The airport will be using wood ceilings and mass timber in the new building and throughout the connection between the buildings. “This new project will truly transform the second floor of the entire terminal,” Longo said.

It will be part of Leahy’s legacy, he said. It makes sense to name the airport after him. “That's who we are going to remember when we look at our new terminal and our new airport and the growth and everything associated with it.”

That echoes the video message that President Joe Biden recorded, which was played after Mayor Weinberger’s announcement; Biden and Leahy were longtime colleagues in the Senate.

"Everyone who flies through will remember your tenacity, your service," the president said. "You've done a hell of a job, buddy. God love ya."

This article was commissioned and paid for by Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport.