The CEO of a company looking to redevelop the Stephenville Airport is giving a glimpse of some of the significant plans they have for the site.

A deal to officially sell the airport to Carl Dymond’s Greater NL Partnership was struck in June.

Speaking at the Construction Association of Newfoundland and Labrador’s annual conference, Dymond revealed that the process of buying the facility is in its final stages and they plan on starting construction in April 2023.

He says that about $500 million that’ll be going into the airport.

Dymond says their plan is to expand the airport terminal by about 200,000 square feet—making it a bit bigger than St. John’s international.

He says they plan on using universal design to develop the airport, and that it would be the “first airport in the world” to be designed using that process.

Dymond’s plans expand far beyond just having travellers coming and going.

He says they want to build a community centre around the airport where people can eat at restaurants, go shopping, and go to bowling alleys and movie theatres, all of which would be on airport grounds, but not interfering with people travelling on planes. He says they want to develop a “mini aero-tropolis.”