MOUNT ALTON — The pre-construction meeting with the winning bidders for the terminal rehabilitation project at the Bradford Regional Airport is slated for a week to ten days, according to the airport’s engineer, Brian Wolfel of GAI Consultants.

The winning bidders were CBF Contracting, Sligo, general contractor, $574,925; Fred L. Burns, Shippenville, plumbing, $26,600; and Pure Tech, Bradford, electrical, $139,330.

During Wednesday’s airrport authority meeting, members voted unanimously to accept the bid of $82,280 from Frank L. Burns for the heating, ventilation and air conditioning portion of the project.

The entire project, which includes new floors, ceilings, restrooms and LED lighting, plus terminal facade upgrades and some landscaping, was to cost approximately $1.2 million, with 75 percent of the funding coming from a grant from the Bureau of Aviation in the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation and 25 percent local money, but could come in under budget.

In other business, authority members and the engineer agreed to file for an extension with the Federal Aviation Administration of the contract for the obstruction removal project at the 14 end of Runway 14-32, the airport’s longest.

Bob Cummins, the contractor, attended Wednesday’s meeting and said inclement weather has delayed his crews from removing all the identified trees below the elevation of the runway as designated in the contract by today (Thursday) when the contract expires.

If the extension is granted, there would be no additional cost to the authority.

In his airline report to the authority, Mark Cestari, chief commercial officer of Southern Airways Express, the low-fare regional carrier that serves the airport, said the October traffic — 466 enplanments and 426 deplanements for a 16.5 daily average — fell only 21 passengers short of the best month ever. During October, just three of the 104 scheduled flights were canceled.

As part of Southern’s stepped-up marketing efforts in promoting the airport, Cestari announced five billboards “effectively reminding the public about the daily low cost flights to Pittsburgh” are now placed along the main route from downtown Bradford to Buffalo, N.Y.

Through the end of October, 39.1 percent of Southern’s flights from Bradford were to Pittsburgh, with 60.9 percent continuing on to other destinations. During this same time, Southern’s monthly report shows that American Airlines, which has an interrline agreement — seamless connections — with Southern, still holds the top spot with Southern’s passengers as the connecting airline, increasing its lead from 33 percent last month to 45 percent. “We hope to see this reach 50 percent,” Cestari said.

Southern now also has an interline agreement witth Alaska Airlines.

Some discussion was held about the Essential Air Service, the federal program that requires airports’ eligibility based on enplaning an average of ten or more passengers a day and keeping the subsidy per passenger rate at $200 or lower. Bradford has met the daily per passenger criteria and is actively working to meet the subsidy per passenger rate.

Bradford’s two-year EAS contract expires in late 2020.