Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Officially Breaks Ground on Project to Reimagine the Passenger Experience at Albany International Airport

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

Thank you. Good morning. Have a seat. Two and a half years from now when we celebrate the reopening of this airport, it'll herald in a new era – an era based on the confidence of a region that matters. It'll herald in an era where visitors and our residents alike will have that sense that they matter and that this region will really know it's taking off.

I am so excited today to announce that we'll be doing the groundbreaking on a $60 million investment in this Capital Region airport that is going to be so magnificent, so welcoming, so beautiful. And as a new grandmother, I'm so excited there's a play area when my grandbaby comes to visit, so there's a lot of great things happening today.

This is the largest state grant this airport has ever received from us, and I'm really proud of what this is going to signal about this region, especially as we spend enormous amounts of time recruiting new businesses to this area. And when they come and they see what we're going to do with the facade and all the amenities, they'll see this region really punches above its weight. And that's the message we want to get out there.

And I want to thank everyone who's part of this today, our partners in this, our County Executive Dan McCoy, you’ll be hearing from shortly. Thank you, County Executive. Phil Calderone, we've been to many ribbon cuttings, groundbreaking events here, and welcoming new airlines and services. And I want to thank you for being the Chief Executive Officer over this extraordinary venue, the Albany International Airport. Let's give a round applause to Phil.

Our amazing DOT Commissioner, Marie Therese Dominguez. I want to thank her. It's so nice to see you not in a snowstorm, not in a flood event. It's something we're actually dry and can wear normal clothes and not our normal storm gear. So she does an extraordinary job. Thank you, Commissioner. Thank you.

Senator Jake Ashby has joined us as well. Senator, thank you for being here. Assemblymembers Pat Fahy and John McDonald, why don’t you all stand up and take a round of applause here for all of you, Senator. Great partners in our state capital. I hope you're enjoying the little – it's not really a break because I know you're just working harder than ever. I know you're shaking your heads. But thank you for all you do. And you really are strong voices for this community, which is really important.

And also our federal partners – Senator Gillibrand, Senator Schumer, and Congressman Tonko, who are a really important part of this. And also, I have a certain affection for mayors. I come out of local government – 14 years as a local government official. And I know the challenges they face and how hard they fight for their communities, especially the charming communities we have right here.

So, Patrick Madden, Ron Keeler, Ron Kim, and Bill Collins. Please raise your hands and take a round applause here. Mike Lyons here, we build with labor. We now have a project labor agreement in place. I want to thank Mike Lyons for his work as the President of the Capital Region Buildings and Trades Council. Mike, thank you. And that means – thank you. And that means that we'll be having good paying union jobs right here, people can live the American dream.

This is the first of nine state funded projects that I announced last September 14, a $230 million investment in communities that often feel overlooked. A lot of attention goes to certain parts of our state. A lot of energy around that, it’s important. A lot of work being done at JFK and LaGuardia, transforming those into beautiful, beautiful, welcoming places. But we cannot overlook our Upstate communities. We can never forget that these are communities that have been through tough times. They have struggled. They have seen more people leave in the past than arrive. And we're going to change that. And that's why I'm so excited because we're going to be able to connect people to everything that Upstate Albany has to offer – Upstate, the Capital Region has to offer.

You think about, as I mentioned, some of the communities, the downtown scenes that I visit them often in Albany and Schenectady and Troy and Cohoes, and Glens Falls. These are really vibrant communities. And a lot of people did have a chance to discover this area during the pandemic – people that were trying to escape the oppressive environment in New York City, which was the epicenter, the global epicenter, of the pandemic. They did find their way up to our charming communities. And we want to make sure they stay. So, this is all part of the attraction, having an airport that just signals that we support great infrastructure, services, but at the end of the day, we can also make them be beautiful.

And that's what's important to me. And we talk about where people will be going, they'll be going up to the racetrack. I know there's many people who fly into Albany heading up to Saratoga Springs, and also the track up there. All the great amenities. I'm not going to go through everything because I've been to every community, I can tell you all my favorite stores, my favorite restaurants, but you know what I'm talking about. And I want to make sure it's more than the people in this room know what I'm talking about. And I want to make sure the rest of the world knows how incredible this area is.

And actually, when you think about this airport, this is the oldest municipal airport in the United States, built in 1928. There was a mayor at the time, Mayor John Boyd Thacher, who was ahead of his time. He said, “Any city that does not accommodate this new air traffic would eventually be left behind.” He was right about that. He had a vision that we're still building upon today, and transportation is really tied to the success of a region.

We continue to work on our roads and our infrastructure projects, our bridges, amenities, but airport is infrastructure as well. And it does take investments, or for an airport this old, it starts to decline. So, we're always going to be giving it a facelift, and that's what this project is about. We're seeing a transformation here, and I'm excited about the energy that we're boasting in this area.

And I want to make sure – as I was growing up in Buffalo, when our children were our greatest export, a lot of young people got on buses, drove cars, and got on airplanes and went elsewhere for their future. And today, we're going to see a reverse migration. People coming here because the jobs are here, the quality of life is second to none.

So I'm excited about this, and I'm going to talk about some of the specifics here in a second. I think that having, again, not the most important thing to everybody, but a play area. I just said goodbye to the baby on Sunday. Having a play area for stressed out parents is important. New baggage areas, just the visual, we'll give you some of the renderings in a couple minutes. It's going to be so beautiful with the glass you see when you come up.

When you see that sense of a vision of seeing a glass facade that says, “We’re into the future.” It signals a modern era that is now embracing this region. So, there's a lot of great images that are going to be created by what we're doing here today. And I want to also talk about just some of the basic things – the seating areas, the concession areas. It's going to be easier to check in, easier to get your bags, easier to get something to eat.

It's all about the ease for the customer so they want to come back again. And that's what I'm so excited about. I also want to make sure these upgrades are good for our airline workers and our airport workers. They deserve a great environment. They deserve to have the amenities, and they have worked so hard. They worked through a pandemic. Our airport workers are extraordinary. And without them, this area grinds to a halt. And I want to make sure we recognize them as well.

We're also, as I mentioned, a year, a little over a year ago, investing in other airports, Saratoga, Saranac Lake, Sullivan County, Syracuse, Binghamton, Rochester, Ogdensburg, and Watertown. We're not leaving anybody out. I'm not allowed to play favorites as governor, and I'm not going to. We're going to make sure we have the resources to support all these projects.

Let's get started. Let's make sure that people understand that when you do a project like this, when you invest $60 million, the largest investment of this $230 million, into one place, it will be transformational. And that's what I look forward to cutting the ribbon on in just about two and a half years. Phil? Okay. Hold you to that, two and a half years. I'll be there. We'll be right here in the wintertime. Hopefully a little break in the weather for the Commissioner to be able to be with us.

But it's going to be a great day. And that is not a long time. That is not saying, “Oh, someday in the future we'll do this.” The future has arrived, and I'm real excited about unveiling the plans with the support of everyone in this room. But let me first bring up our great County Executive who's been working in partnership with us to protect this airport, enhance it, and make it better than ever before. Ladies and gentlemen, our County Executive, Dan McCoy