BANGOR, Maine — A little more than five months after Tony Caruso was elevated to director of Bangor International Airport, BIA has a permanent replacement for him as the assistant director.
Maine native James Canders will officially take the job over on Jan. 22. Canders is currently the assistant airport manager at W.K. Kellogg Airport in Battle Creek, Mich.
“We’ve been looking for a replacement since August, initially internally and then with a national search,” said Caruso. “We’re really excited to have James come on board as he has a diverse background in aviation with military and commercial airport experience. He’s also worked at a few airports overseas and has aircraft-handling experience, as well.”
Canders, a graduate of Daniel Webster College in Nashua, N.H., has an aviation management degree as well as an aviation science degree in flight operations. He is also a commercially rated pilot.
“He started as a line service technician and worked his way up,” said Caruso.
Canders, who grew up in Washburn, is married and has two children.
“I’ve been looking at ways of getting back for a few years now after being abroad for a while,” said Canders, who served four years in the U.S. Army as an E4 specialist. “Most of my family lives in the Bangor area.”
Canders’ mother lives in Levant, one brother is an attorney at the Bangor law firm Eaton Peabody, and his other brother lives in Bangor despite working as a pilot for a company based in Grand Rapids, Mich.
Canders also has one sister, who owns and runs a family tobacco plantation in Connecticut with her husband.
Canders’ new duties at BIA include direct responsibility for the management of ramp services, the ground support equipment shop, and the passenger services and airline services divisions. He will also assist Caruso in administration and management of airport operations.
Canders will move to the Bangor area at the start of the new year, and his family will join him after his oldest child finishes the school year.
Great news. Welcome home to Maine. At the least, BIA should put down a red carpet throughout the terminal and have a party in his honor.
Bring in Southwest or Jetblue!
Why does an airport that is primarily empty require two full-time salaried managers? That place is like an abandoned movie set about 90% of the time.
BIA is open 8,760 hours every year-so is a Tim Horton’s and they have more than one manager. It’s home to not enough airlines, the Air Guard, TSA,US Customs, a huge snowplowing and runway maintenance operation as well as private companies that perform a variety of services. Marketing and the never ending quest to be competitive certainly requires more than one body.
@Bangorian: Typical outsider looking in with no real relevant factual data to back it up. Thanks for chiming in with your needless speculation and negative attitude. Canders will be a huge asset to this airport in more ways than one.
I don’t often agree with Bangorian, but he does start some good banter. If we all agreed all the time this would not be much fun. However -you are dead on accurate with your post.