Anonymous Follow-up

Couple days ago, I wrote a post challenging the "anonymous" bloggers, who work at the airport and have a vested interest in ORH. It is up to them, not up to us, to reach out to them. None of them said anything, which I expected nothing less. Here again lies the problem with ORH--completely ineffective on the ground mgmt, which was the true reason Allegiant left and other airlines will not come. Instead I got a great response from an "anoymous person" who referred to him or herself as an "industry insider". Tonight I finally read it closer and it is awesome!!!


I'm an industry person who is rooting for the success of ORH.I think the airport could/should become viable. The political infrastructure is better aligned than most of ORH's peers. You get the feeling that with a couple of calls O'Brien, McGovern and others will be ready to smooze with an airline...and that's a very good thing.

Airline expertise and networking, however, is lacking. There is none at the airport as far as I can tell.

Massport is far more concerned about the success of BOS than ORH. ORH seems to be a pawn in their broader chess game. IMG is tied into Massport too. An alignment with Massport is ok, but the city needs to control the airline process as it is the only one with a vested interest in its success...and I mean that not from the P&L of the airport, but for the broader economic development of the city/western suburbs (which is far more important than the airport's finances in the mid/long run).

Does the business community really believe in ORH? If so, they need to be ready with a package now to offer when the right carrier shows an interest. Engineering something during the courtship rarely works out.

Ops is a problem and probably why Skybus overlooked ORH as they were hyper-sensitive to it during their New England swing a couple of years ago. But it's not that much of a problem. If the city had a detailed (not pie-in-the-sky)plan for the fog/ILS when Skybus walked through the door, then they probably would have remained interested.Bottom line: A package incorporating the ops piece, revenue assurances via the business community, an overall business case of why ORH makes sense from the revenue side of the equation, and generic incentives (landing fees, parking, etc.) needs to be put together and then properly marketed to the right airline people...and not just your average "Director- Market Planning".