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“We understand and appreciate the historical significance of this airport and this terminal building,” said Gary Vey, president and CEO of the Gander International Airport Authority.

“We’re hopeful that some solution can be found perhaps to maintain it. But we have to be clear that it can’t be at the expense of the airport authority because we don’t have a mandate for that.

“To put it bluntly, we’re not in the museum business.”

The airport still has a strategic and vital role but no longer sees nearly the traffic it once did, he said. Operating costs of the terminal are increasingly eating into profits, he explained.

Vey sympathizes with those who want to protect Gander’s unique ode to an era when boarding a plane was a luxury. He’s about to retire from an extraordinary 17-year career in a place like no other.

“I’ve seen everybody here from Fidel Castro, Vicente Fox, Prince Charles, the Queen. I saw Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat, the list goes on.”

Fidel Castro enjoys a browse in the duty free shop @GanderAirport back in the 1960s. Bet he never bought cigars. http://t.co/gaW3TZZ5Re —

Gander Airport (@GanderAirport) January 07, 2014

He once talked politics with former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush Sr. for a cherished few minutes when they were en route to Moscow for the funeral of former Russian president Boris Yeltsin.

Vey still gets a kick out of sharing with visitors the room’s most prized features. They include the “Welcoming Birds” sculpture in bronze by Arthur Price and the 22-metre long futuristic mural that hangs overhead.