"The airport's success"

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Opinion
The airport's success
The Rochester (NY) Democrat and Chronicle


It took lots of hard work by community and elected leaders.

What a difference focused attention and cooperation can make. Those two
factors alone played a huge role in taking Rochester off the dubious list of
cities with the highest air fares in the country and boosting passenger
traffic to record levels. 

The work that went into solving Rochester's air fare problem over the past
decade should be a model for tackling other community concerns. Leaders
rallied, whether it was former County Executive Jack Doyle, Rep. Louise
Slaughter, Sen. Chuck Schumer or former airport manager Terry Slaybaugh. 

As this page recommended in a special report in 1996 on the future of the
Greater Rochester International Airport, leaders focused mainly on
attracting low-fare airlines. 

After a few miscues, JetBlue was landed in 2000, followed by AirTran two
years later. The low fares that both brought to Rochester gradually brought
down the fares of other airlines already in this market. Those airlines
recognized quickly that no longer could they get away with charging an
average of $465 for a round-trip ticket to New York City. Currently, the
round-trip fare is as low as $112. 

While Rochester's airport is hardly as bustling as, say, Atlanta's or
Pittsburgh's, it's attracting more passengers than ever. A record 2.9
million passengers used the airport last year. A decade ago, there was
growing public concern that the airport, which was built in 1991, was too
large to serve this region. The joke then was that those walking through
Rochester's airport could hear their echo. 

Increasingly, it's starting to look like a wise move for the latest crop of
community leaders to seriously explore airport expansion.

After all, such plans would fit well with the ongoing efforts to rework
Rochester's economy and to build Renaissance Square and other projects that
are meant to make this community more desirable to businesses, residents and
visitors.

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