Airport Considers $22 Million Jet Fuel Farm Expansion

The Nantucket Airport Commission on Tuesday reviewed a proposed $22 million expansion of its fuel farm that would include the installation of four new 25,000-gallon above-ground jet fuel tanks. But it’s unlikely that the airport ends up spending that much money on the expansion: commissioners felt strongly that the estimate was far higher than necessary. They suggested ways to reduce the cost, including cheaper tanks and more reliance on fuel transport from the mainland.

“I have no interest whatsoever in loading up our debt for $22 million,” Airport Commission member Anthony Bouscaren said.

In recent years, the airport has sometimes been forced to ration jet fuel during the summer. This has been a recurring problem in recent years, as demand for jet fuel continues to hit record highs.

“From everything that I’ve heard,” Airport Commission chair Art Gasbarro said, “I think that we need more storage.”

The shortages are partially a result of the airport’s limited jet fuel storage capacity. The airport currently has 100,000 gallons of storage for jet fuel A in the fuel farm, a capacity that the expansion proposal would double.

But commissioners didn’t feel that installing another four tanks should cost anywhere near $22 million. The plan suggested that each tank would cost $3 million, which some commissioners thought was potentially millions of dollars too high and still wouldn’t account for the full cost.

“I just fail to understand $22 million, I'm sorry,” Airport Commission member Phil Marks said. “The number just makes no sense to me.”

The commission has asked its consultants, the Acton, Mass.-based firm McFarland Johnson, to review the numbers and come back with a revised estimate, which could be much lower.

“Nobody is going to vote for $22 million at this stage, and I don’t think anybody here believes that’s a real number,” Airport Commission member Mike Leavitt said.

At the moment, they don’t plan to ask for any funds from the town in their fiscal year 2027 budget for the expansion.

The proposed fuel farm expansion follows the airport’s controversial expansion of the south ramp for private jets, a project that was completed earlier this year.

The commission is also considering other options to reduce the cost of the fuel farm expansion. If they can install fewer tanks, the price will be lower. But to justify fewer tanks, they may need to convince the Steamship Authority to allow them to ship more fuel to the island, allowing them to meet demand more effectively and restock faster. Members of the Airport Commission stated that they have had some trouble convincing the Steamship to provide a sufficient number of reservations to ship the amount of fuel they needed.

“We asked for 16 [reservations] and got 14 across five summer weeks, well, that’s your 100,000 gallons right there,” Gasbarro said. “That, in itself, would go a long way to avoiding the situation we find ourselves in.”