The Martha’s Vineyard Airport is under an Oct. 15 deadline to correct several deficiencies in airport operations or face potential sanctions that could include the loss of millions of dollars in federal funds and its status as a commercial airport.

In a meeting with the chairman and vice chairman of the airport commission Tuesday, officials from the Federal Aviation Administration and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation detailed four areas of concern including an incomplete building construction project, wildlife management plan, poor employee performance and inadequate runway markings, commission chairman Myron Garfinkle said. Two of the four areas, the runway markings and a wildlife management plan, “present significant areas of noncompliance,” he said.

Mr. Garfinkle described the FAA’s findings Thursday when airport commissioners met at the West Tisbury Library.

“[The FAA] made it plain that we have not made a material effort to correct these noncompliance issues for a significant period of time, in some cases well over a year,” Mr. Garfinkle said in a prepared statement that was read into the record of the meeting. “It is our firm understanding that if we do not take these issues very seriously and respond to our licensing, funding and enabling agencies in a forthright and prompt manner, we will be putting any future funding at risk,” he said. An $8 million federal grant is potentially at risk, Mr. Garfinkle said.

Airport manager Sean Flynn did not attend the commission meeting, and Mr. Garfinkle said he was on an unscheduled two-week vacation that began Monday, August 10. Asked if Mr. Flynn was expected to return, he replied, “No comment.” Last Friday, airport commissioners had met in executive session to discuss a non-union employee management issue.

FAA has set an Oct. 15 deadline for deficiencies to be corrected. — Mark Lovewell

Mr. Garfinkle said assistant manager Deborah Potter is in charge of operations and management “until we have a full-time manager again.”

The FAA’s findings follow an annual inspection conducted in May.

“This was highly unusual from the standpoint of not necessarily that airports are in noncompliance but the FAA’s experience is when these are pointed out there is a high priority and due diligence to correct them,” vice chairman Robert Rosenbaum said. “Their feeling is that the Vineyard has been very difficult to get these issues resolved.”

One area of concern cited by the FAA was the lack of any action on a new aircraft rescue and fire fighting (ARFF) building. The airport originally received $850,000 in 2011 to draw up plans and permits for the ARFF building, with the expectation that the FAA would have a complete design drawn within one year. No action has been taken on the project, Mr. Garfinkle said.

“After four years, there has been limited communication from the airport to the FAA regarding our progress on this project,” Mr. Garfinkle said. That communication should have come from management, he later added.

He continued: “Any delay of the ARFF building plans, permits and approval will certainly put our funding into jeopardy. It is forecast that the next fiscal period the FAA will be shifting funding focus towards” other projects.

The deficiencies cited ultimately put in jeopardy is the airport’s 139 status, which allows use by commercial airliners.

“We have to be 139 compliant to have scheduled service,” Mr. Garfinkle said.

The airport is under a strict Oct. 15 deadline to come up with an acceptable wildlife management plan and to correct the problems with airport runways.

Commissioner Christine Todd, speaking via phone remotely, asked if the deadline could be met.

“Can we with full and unquestionable confidence know that these matters are being dealt with in an efficient matter with the time frame they have set for us?” she asked.

“I can only answer with the commitment that we will give you our best efforts,” Mr. Garfinkle said. “There’s a lot of work to be done to be brought into compliance.”