BREWER

T.F. Green Airport director Mark P. Brewer is expected to resign before the end of the year, leaving three major expansion projects incomplete at the state’s primary airport.

The Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen in New Hampshire confirmed him unanimously Tuesday night to pilot the Manchester-Boston Regional Airport, according to a deputy city clerk. Brewer had been nominated by Mayor Frank C. Guinta on Nov. 7.

Patti Goldstein, a spokeswoman for the Rhode Island Airport Corporation, said Brewer submitted a letter yesterday announcing his intention to leave in 30 days. Sean Thomas, a senior policy advisor to Mayor Guinta, said Brewer was expected to start in Manchester next month. His swearing-in has not been scheduled.

“I feel bad for Providence,” Thomas said yesterday. “We’re getting a great guy.”

After Brewer’s nomination, the airport corporation praised Brewer for his service. “On behalf of the board and the staff of RIAC, we wish Mark and his family well and support his decision to pursue this opportunity,” Kathleen C. Hittner, the board chairwoman, said in a statement.

Brewer is leaving an airport in transition. The corporation is pushing to expand a runway to allow transcontinental flights, a project that has run into dogged opposition among community groups in Warwick.

Brewer has also been overseeing an $83.5-million renovation of the terminal, aimed at broadening retail options and speeding the movement of passengers. That project will not be complete until the spring.

And the corporation recently broke ground on a $242-million transportation hub that will give travelers in Boston rail access to Green. The link is expected to open by 2010.

Yesterday, Goldstein said Brewer’s departure will not slow those projects.

The corporation board plans to appoint an interim director at its meeting Wednesday at 4 p.m., she said. It will also appoint a subcommittee to lead the nationwide search for a permanent replacement.

“They will take the time that they need to ensure that the person they select has the best credentials to lead the airport and move it forward,” Goldstein said. “There are people who are attracted to challenges.”

In moving to Manchester, Brewer inherits an airport that handles about a third fewer passengers than Green. Last year, 3.9 million passengers visited the Manchester airport; 5.2 million landed or took off at Green.

In taking the new position, Brewer is accepting an initial pay cut, but with good prospects. He earns $188,000 in Rhode Island, according to Goldstein. In Manchester, he will be paid $185,195, Thomas said. That could rise to $190,000 six months after Brewer assumes his post.

Even at his initial pay rate, Brewer will be the highest-paid municipal employee in Manchester, where the mayor makes $60,000 a year.

Both airports experienced steep declines in passenger traffic last year. At Green, the 2006 total was down 9 percent, from 5.7 million in 2005. In Manchester, the drop was even steeper, declining 11 percent from 4.4 million the year before, an airport record.

But Manchester officials predict their performance will improve this year.

Brian O’Neill, the interim director in Manchester, said last year’s downtown had interrupted a decade of strong growth. This year’s total, he said, is projected to reach 4 million.

“We had challenges in 2006 like many regional airports around the country,” O’Neill said yesterday. “But it looks like we’re having steady growth. We are very excited.”

At Green, officials are “hopeful” that passenger traffic will reach 5 million this year, a 4-percent drop from last year, Goldstein said last month.

Brewer, 54, has led Green since 2004. The corporation first hired him in 1997 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. Previously, he had held leadership positions in Hyannis, Mass., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Allentown, Pa.

Early in his tenure, Brewer oversaw dramatic growth at Green, powered in part by the arrival of Southwest Airlines, which now accounts for about half of all passengers at Green.

But as airlines have left Green or switched to smaller jets in recent years, the airport has suffered.

In January 2006, Independence Air stopped operating at Green. A short time later, American Airlines ended its service to Dallas and Chicago.

In June, Southwest announced plans to cut one of six daily flights to Philadelphia and one of two daily flights to Phoenix.

bgedan@projo.com