"Smaller Airports Don't Get Much Respect"

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Column
Smaller Airports Don't Get Much Respect
By Mike Ivey
The Wisconsin State Journal


Those big international airports usually take the rap for poor on- time
performance but there's no guarantee you'll do much better booking a trip
through a smaller one. 

Delays at smaller airports have jumped as much as 49 percent, according to
the latest report by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. 
Of course, places like Chicago's O'Hare International Airport continue to
hamper travelers. On-time departures in June at O'Hare were 68.5 percent, a
17 percent drop from the previous year. 

On-time departures at Newark, N.J., fell 5 percent during the same time
period and in San Francisco on-time arrivals dropped 12.7 percent. 

But at many small airports, particularly those in the South, things were
even worse. In Baton Rouge, La., just 55 percent of flights arrived on time,
while 68.6 percent departed on schedule. 

And at Marquette's airport in Michigan's Upper Peninsula of all places, the
number of on-time arrivals was 41.1 percent, which represents a 49 percent
decline from the previous June. 

"Delays this year at smaller airports are due to hubs and weather," said
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman William Shumann. 

Madison's Dane County Regional Airport showed a 70.5 percent on- time
arrival rate in June. Milwaukee was at 70 percent and Minneapolis-St. Paul
at 77.4 percent. 

Shumann explained that delays at hubs can hit smaller airports - like Dane
County - particularly hard, with airlines at the hubs tending to give
preference to flights destined for bigger cities. No wonder Marquette,
Mich., scores so poorly. 

Of course, smaller airports getting their wings clipped isn't news to anyone
who has found their flight into Madison cancelled. Given a choice of putting
a couple dozen Wisconsin passengers on a bus or sending a full flight to the
coast, Madison is going to lose out every time. 

Hikers not so cheap: Christine Thisted, executive director of the Ice Age
Park and Trail Foundation, has taken issue with an earlier column where I
trotted out the old line about backpackers coming into town with an extra
pair of shorts and a $5 bill - and not changing either one. 

Thisted says that attitude supports the argument that in order to deserve
access to public lands you've got to spend money and plays into the hands of
the ATV crowd, which is seeking permission to drive their mud-jumpers all
over the North Woods. 

"This is a claim that is seriously jeopardizing many miles of the Ice Age
National Scenic Trail in the northern part of our state," said Thisted.
"They are using the economic argument for all it's worth and have the
backing and massive financial resources of Honda, Kawasaki and others to
support their claims." 

Thisted has some data to back her position, unlike many newspaper columnists
who can just pop off at will. 

Hiking, for example, is one of America's fastest growing recreational
activities, with almost one-third of Americans participating, according to
the USDA Forest Service. Sales of outdoor gear, clothing, footwear, and
other accessories amount to more than $18 billion in spending, according to
the Outdoor Industry Association. 

Moreover, a recent study of visitors to Colorado's Rio Grande National
Forest on the eastern slope of the Continental Divide estimated each
individual spent $567 for lodging, $319 for food and drink and $168 for
transportation. It also was estimated that in a typical year, these visitors
individually spend $3,805 on all outdoor recreation activities. 

Finally, studies show that hiking is an effective way to stay fit and
healthy, helping to reduce obesity-related medical costs, which reached a
total of $75 billion in 2003. 

Fair enough. Just make sure to buy the freeze-dried macaroni and cheese
locally.


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