"Questions at Worcester airport after end of commercial flights"

Saturday, February 8, 2003

Questions at Worcester airport after end of commercial flights
By Adam Gorlick
The Associated Press


WORCESTER, Mass. (AP) It's the middle of the day at Worcester Regional
Airport, and the only people visible in the passenger terminal are the
handful of clerks behind rental car counters and the woman working at the
magazine stand.

The 10-year-old, $15 million terminal is nearly spotless and silent except
for the Rod Stewart song piping softly through the overhead speakers. When
US Airways Express pulls out as the airport's last commercial carrier on
Feb. 23, there will hardly be anyone around to notice.

But that doesn't mean the airport is being ignored or forgotten. City, state
and federal officials are trying to chart a course for its future that might
include hosting more private jets or leasing some land to businesses
attracted to Worcester's growing medical and financial industries.

''We're at a crossroads with this airport,'' said U.S. Rep. James McGovern,
D-Mass. ''Do we throw in the towel and say to hell with it, or do we sit
down and work out a plan to make it successful? I say we figure out a way to
bring in the passengers and bring in the airlines.''

McGovern, whose district includes Worcester, said he's trying to arrange a
meeting within the next two months with airport officials, politicians,
business leaders and community members to discuss the airport's fate.

''Airlines leaving regional airports is a national problem because the
industry is hurting now,'' McGovern said. ''But the industry is going to
bounce back, and Worcester can play a big role when it does.''

During the past decade, officials at the Massachusetts Port Authority say
they've pushed for greater use of regional airports they run including the
one at Worcester to help ease air traffic at Logan International Airport.

Still, the agency is trying to convince a judge to let them build a new
runway at Logan that they say is needed to further relieve air traffic. The
city of Boston and neighboring communities are fighting that plan, and say
Massport hasn't done enough to make the Worcester airport successful.

Anastasia Lyman, vice president of Communities Against Runway Expansion,
which represents 30 Boston-area communities opposed to Logan's expansion,
said she's worried that Massport will abandon the Worcester airport when the
agency's contract to operate the facility expires next year.

''Once that contract is up, they can cut bait and Worcester will be out of
the picture,'' Lyman said. ''And then that's it for Worcester being part of
regionalization.''

Massport officials say they're not giving up on the Worcester airport.

''We know demand for air travel is going to rebound, probably within three
to five years,'' said Betty Desrosiers, Massport's director of aviation
planning and development. ''In the long term, the system is going to need a
Worcester airport.''

By the end of 2002, there were 66,000 commercial passengers who used the
airport, down from more than 129,000 the year before, according to airport
director Eric Waldron.

That's a considerable downturn from the airport's heyday in 1989, when
346,000 passengers arrived and left Worcester on the four airlines that
operated there. The new terminal was built, and the airport's 7,000-foot
runway was touted as long enough to accommodate jets.

But as the economy soured and money-troubled airlines began cutting their
losses, the commercial carriers started leaving Worcester.

By the end of 1998, when 76,000 passengers used the airport, US Airways
Express was the only carrier left. In 2000, Massport took over airport
operations from the city, and business began to rebound.

Delta Express, Pan Am and American Eagle began running flights out of
Worcester. Numbers were back up to 106,000 passengers in 2000, but the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks once again turned the tide against the airline
industry.

In April 2002, Pan Am was the first to leave. Four months later, American
Eagle took off. In November, Delta Express pulled out, leaving US Airways
Express alone again, with three flights a day to and from Philadelphia.

Lagging ticket sales and cost-cutting needed under a bankruptcy
reorganization plan finally forced the airline to call it quits, company
officials said.

While commercial flights were having a turbulent decade, general aviation
activity operations that range from flight schools to corporate jet takeoffs
was rising steadily.

Last year, there were 56,000 general aviation take offs and landings, a 7
percent increase from 2001 and a 9 percent jump from the year before,
Waldron said.

''That's where the focus has been,'' Waldron said. ''A few years ago, you'd
see one or two private jets on the ramp in a day. In the past two weeks,
I've seen six jets at once lined up to take off.''

The airport secured a $1.2 million federal grant to rebuild the tie-down
ramp, where pilots base their planes. Plans are also under way to improve
the airport's electronic navigating systems that help guide planes to the
ground in bad weather, Waldron said.

Those projects will help keep the airport viable until commercial flights
are ready to return, officials say.

''All the projections indicate that the airline industry will bounce back,''
said Phil Niddrie, Worcester's chief development officer. ''And when it
does, the major airports in Boston, Manchester, Providence and Hartford will
be at their capacity and there's going to be a need for us. For now, our
emphasis should be in corporate travel and general aviation, but we will not
yield in our efforts to encourage commercial airlines to come back.''

On the Net: http://www.massport.com/airports/worce.html

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