April 01, 2006

JetBlue

The past two weeks, I have been putting up blogs that we need to get two of the Embraer shuttles from Boston - JFK diverted to ORH. Trying to back that up with things like the advertisements in the Telegram, no overhead that we could offer, grant monies and the fact many people could be won over from SouthWest..

For the most part, the comments have been that there is no way this will happen. Obviously, everyone has the right to disagree, but let me ask you this. If we do not think that we can get two shuttles from an airport that is managed by the same company (MassPort) as us, exactly what flights or airlines do you think we can get??

The political reality is that based on a $2,000,ooo operating deficit and the current contract with our management company (MassPort):

  • July 1st, 2006, the City of Worcester will have to pay $640,000 per year (32%)
  • July 1st, 2007, the City of Worcester will have to cover the entire deficit ($2,000,000)

In 15 months, we (the tax-payers of Worcester) are looking at a $2,000,000 bill. My point is that if you think JetBlue does not make sense then tell me what does. If you can not come up with anything then it looks like Charley Farley make in fact be right--CLOSEORH.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'll tell you what needs to be done...we need to get rid of Massport because they are 110% NO HELP!! Then we need to fire the Airport director and the liason...then we need to ask the people...the tax payers...should we close the airport, or do something about it other than just sitting around watching one airline fly in and out to one destination 4 times a week for the next 20 years

Bill Randell said...

MassPort has bought us time, by covering our deficit, so I would not say NO HELP at all. As far as helping attract airlines, MASSPORT has been 110% NO HELP.

Joe Gargery said...

Bill,

The reason Jetblue is making money is because they don't do foolish things, like increasing expenses without increasing revenues.

Diverting two planes a day to ORH means they have to set up an operation in Worcester. That means hiring a station manager, a couple of gate agents and luggage crushers. Now what happens when something breaks on their plane. I'm willing to bet they have a mechanic in Boston waiting around to fix something. You want them to hire another one at ORH?

Lets say they do set up a Worcester to New York run. How much will it INCREASE their business? (answer zero). People will drive to Boston to catch a flight to NYC, where they have a better chance of having a functioning plane waiting for them to take off, and not grounded by fog.

Anonymous said...

I agree passenger service should take top priority at ORH, but what about cargo? UPS has the distribution center in Shrewsbury and FedEx is right down the street in Auburn. Why not target these guys to start flying in 2 or 3 cargo flights a day and maybe even add a freight terminal if it's successful.