Airport staffers tell GlobeSt.com that president Larry Dale, a commercial developer and former mayor of Sanford, could have placed a lien on the estimated $5 million worth of property the Portsmouth, NH-based carrier owns at the airport but decided instead to give owners Fink and Timothy Mellon additional time to settle the account.

"We knew they weren't going to abandon their investment by sneaking out in the middle of the night," an airport staffer tells GlobeSt.com. The airline is building a new $800,000 flight-simulation center estimated at 100,000 sf and operates a 5,000-sf reservations center at the airport.

A December audit by Orlando-based accountants McDirmit, Davis and Puckett questioned how and when the debt would be repaid and how the airport could handle a default. The $300,000 represented 80% of the small airport's accounts receivable.