I was thinking the other day how a few us met at Congressman McGovern's office with others a few years back regarding the DOT Small Community Air Service Grant. At that time ORH had failed in two prior applications.
By the end of the meeting, I was convinced that Congressman McGovern was going to make sure that this would not happen again. He mentioned amongst, some things I forgot, a call to the Senators Offices and the head of the DOT, Minerta. Sure enough we received $455,000.
To date this money simply has not been spent correctly and mainly spent on consultants, versus an airline. Let us not forget the job the Congressman did for ORH or the fact we need 10,000 passengers this year to keep primary airport status and $1,000,000.
Same Time Next Year
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It’s been nearly a year since I wrote about the problems that come from
having 11 bosses who are not on the same page about anything, as well as
suggestion...
4 months ago
3 comments:
Congressman McGovern rocks!!!
BTW, did you see this in yesterday's Boston Globe, Hey Massport! What about ORH ?!?!?!?!
Logan passenger volume nearly at pre-9/11 level
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff | January 19, 2007
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks sent the US aviation industry into a tailspin, Logan International Airport officials have longed to have travel finally recover to pre-9/11 levels.
And if just four more passengers had taken off or landed at Logan every day last year, 2006 would have marked the year business finally recovered from 9/11.
As it turned out, passenger counts last year at Logan fell 0.005 percent short of the 2000 record. A total of 27,725,443 passengers used Logan in the year ended Dec. 31, according to Massachusetts Port Authority data released yesterday. That was 1,390 fewer than in 2000.
Logan spokesman Phil Orlandella attributed the volume to several factors: continued strong demand for travel, increased service by low-cost carriers at Logan, better parking, an increase in the number of nonstop destinations from Logan to 78 domestically and 33 internationally, and the public's faith in airport security.
Passenger volume was up 2.4 percent compared to 2005, even as total flights at the airport fell 1 percent. Reflecting airlines' success in running the fullest flights they can -- by reducing frequency and shifting to smaller aircraft -- Logan last year had virtually the same number of passengers as in 2000 but with 16.7 percent fewer total flights. Logan had 406,119 takeoffs and landings last year, compared to 487,996 in 2000.
"It's like the old beer commercial, 'Tastes great, less filling.' We can tell the community: more passengers, less flights," Orlandella said.
Separately yesterday, Massport also tapped acting aviation director Edward C. Freni to become director and operating chief of Logan. Freni took the place of then-aviation chief Thomas J. Kinton Jr. when Kinton succeeded Craig P. Coy as Massport chief executive last August.
Massport board member Paul D. Foster said the authority used a nationwide aviation executive recruiting firm and considered 25 candidates from around the country for Freni's job, narrowing it to him and two other finalists Foster wouldn't name.
Kinton said although Freni has been with Massport since 2000, he spent 23 years as an executive at American Airlines before that, giving him broad industry experience.
Freni said he envisions no big changes other than "looking for ways to make the traveling experience easier and much more convenient and considerate," including better security, technology, and customer service.
Freni inherits the challenges of juggling gate assignments, finding better space for fast-growing AirTran Airways, and recruiting other airlines to use Delta Air Lines Inc.'s half-empty $500 million Terminal A.
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com.
Harry Tembenis
Worcester, MA
Bill,
Worcester Airport Commission minutes for 12/11/06 are posted on the Airport website.
The Massport annual report of 2005 has operations stats on the last pages of the report. I have mentioned before that flights from '96 to '05 are down. I Believe the worst drop is in Comm air service flights.
Its good that more passengers are coming through the gates since post 9-11 but using 9-11 as a starting point to measure real passenger gains is a bit flawed. It's like saying real estate prices are up 150% in Worc since 1990. Using a low point as a benchmark can be misleading.
Massport has added another runway AND flights are down. This results in excess capacity and until Logan approaches critical mass as far as the number of flights is concerned, ORH will play second or third fiddle.
The Interstatee Highway folks could add another lane to 290 but if every car suddenly has two passengers, the road becomes underutilized.
Time for a new website.
www.rfp.orh.now
Get the politics out of it !!
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