Business representatives voiced support Friday for the restoration of passenger service at Groton-New London Airport, according to an official who attended a private meeting with Kevin Dillon, the Connecticut Airport Authority’s executive director.

“It’s fair to say there was a unanimous consensus that the airport has significant economic viability,” said Tony Sheridan, president and chief executive officer of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut.

Sheridan said about a dozen representatives of major businesses in the region attended the session, which took place at Flanagan’s restaurant in Groton. The meeting was closed to the public because it involved discussion of proprietary information.

The Coast Guard, the Navy, Electric Boat, Dominion, Chelsea Groton Bank, Foxwoods Resort Casino and Mohegan Sun were among those represented, Sheridan said. Dillon was unavailable following the meeting.

A spokesman for the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, which owns Foxwoods, applauded the state’s "willingness in looking at alternative modes of travel to southeastern Connecticut.”

“If successful, it will help to enhance tourism for our entire region …,” Bill Satti, the spokesman, said in an email.

Passenger service to and from Groton-New London ceased more than a decade ago. New service would likely involve regular connecting flights to T.F. Green Airport in Warwick, R.I., and to Bradley International Airport in Windsor Locks, Sheridan said.

“At the end of the day, if the region doesn’t show interest, you’re not going to get a carrier,” Sheridan said. “First, you have to get business people on board. Then you get more people involved in the process."

Sheridan said Dillon would put together a database of parties interested in passenger service and then approach prospective carriers.

“He’s done it before, in Manchester (N.H.), and at T.F. Green,” Sheridan said. “If he went to an airline today and they said yes, it would probably take six months to a year to get service up and running. It’s not like they have planes sitting around waiting for an opportunity. Equipment would have to be purchased, crews trained — it’s complicated.

“We owe it to the region to make this effort.”

b.hallenbeck@theday.com

Twitter: @bjhallenbeck