Allegiant Air Route Map

I remember, not too long ago, when there was only one destination (Vegas) with only a few cities being serviced. Thier growth fopcusing on secondary airports has been impressive.

Allegiant Route Map

Click on Rockford.

Chicopee Casino?

Turns out that Harry is not the only seeing the potential of a secondary airport having the ability to lure a casino to Massachusetts. Check out this article in the Republican. Here is part of the story:


The mayor said there are 100 acres available for development between the airport and state turnpike exit that are owned by the city, state and Westover Metropolitan Development Corp. Although casino gambling is not legal in Massachusetts, there is a chance the governor will ask the Legislature to vote on the issue.



Maybe the RFP for the parcel of the land at ORH should have been for a casino operator??

July & August Board Minutes

Still not on-line

Telegram Letter to the Editor

Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Sell Worcester airport to casino investors

Sheldon Adelson, the sixth-richest person in the world, proposes to build a casino in Marlboro. Mohegan Sun, the third-largest casino in the world also proposes to build a casino in Palmer. Should either proposal go forward, they will need an airport to fly in their high rollers.

Enter the sale of Worcester Regional Airport to either group. Rather than wait until January to let Massport take over the airport for pennies on the dollar, sell the airport outright to either casino group for a potential eight-figure windfall into the city’s coffers. You now have laid the foundation for property tax relief for residents and businesses in Worcester and also save teaching, fire and police jobs.

HARRY TEMBENIS

Two Posts Today

Today I received two posts, which I feel exemplify the blog itself. First, someone (anonymous-surprise) asked if I had received any information regarding my requests from the airport liaison. The answer is, and still is, no. In fact I sent an e-mail to our airport liaison Sunday night inquiring to:

1. My public information request on the route analysis that have been done by the various consultants.
2. The July minutes still are not posted
3. Who was the one bidder on the parcel of land, some 4 months later
4. Where is the Master Plan

The anonymous poster then accused me of deleting comments, so why should I be mad when my requests to our airport liaison are not honored?? Answer: The airport liaison is held to a different standard then me, it is called Massachusetts General Law (MGL)-- can you say Sunshine Week. There is no MGL that prohibits me from deleting any comments that I want to cancel since my blog is a private entity. Sorry, none of you saw this comment, I deleted it.

On the other end of the spectrum, I received a link to an article from Harry Tembenis. Harry, per usual great link. In the end, I am merely want to make ORH the airport that I know that it can be so that it can contribute to the City of Worcester's revenue stream, versus costing approximately $1,200,000 per year.

Anonymous posters, who I will continue to delete as I see fit, can accuse me of who knows what, but I feel the majority of people know nothing would make me happier then to be discussing a successful airport that contributes to the City of Worcester's bottom line, versus my continued unanswered questions.

Stewart Doing Great

Please note the link to a story in the Time Herald Record. Stewart had over 90,000 passengers in one month--July. Remember Stewart was the airport that was privatized via a long-term lease (99 years) with National Express approximately 10 years. They have done such a great job that the Ports of New York and New Jersey are buying the airport back with National Express making lots of monies. Why have we not invited National Express to ORH to try the same thing?

I can easily see MassPort doing the same thing with ORH over ten years. Problem is that in ten years we will not have the cash to buy the airport back from MassPort.

66,000 Operations

I was just reading the official website and noticed the following:



All General Aviation activity and services remain available. Last year we had over 66,000 operations involving private, corporate and general aviation. We are continuing our Lobster give-a-way for pilots. Contact WiFi Accessable Swissport link on this site or call 508 755-5870. For more information see the "GENERAL AVIATION SERVICES" link on this web site.



Here is my question 66,000 operations? That averages out to 180 per day. I had no idea that ORH was that busy?

Oh Yeah

We still have no idea, although it has been 4 months, who the one bidder was for the parcel of land at ORH that was put out to bid (RFP) twice.

Frustrated

1. No word from our airport liaison
2. July and August Board Minutes still not on-line
3. Status of negotiations with MassPort?
4. ORH Master Plan?
5. ORH not an issue in this election

Although we all have known that control of ORH will turned over to MassPort, via a long-term lease or sale. I am more convinced then ever that it will be done for pennies on the dollar. Good news is that ORH will become the airport that is should be, but the bad news is how much money will we have left on the table.

Bottom line is that we should have been doing a nationwide sale on ORH the past three years to ensure the highest possible return for the tax-payers. At his point, hemoragging money the way we are and the current City of Worcester financial condition, we are at the mercy of MassPort and whatever offer the make.

Kudos to Mike Germain

Imagine someone actually talking about the fate of ORH. Check out the article: here is a part:



“If you watch one City Council meeting you realize right away that we have too many councilors,” Mr. Germain said. “Not only is it fiscally irresponsible to have the current number, it’s functionally impossible to get the needs of the city taken care of with so many people who have so many personal agendas.” Mr. Germain said Worcester Regional Airport has been a drain on the local government and, as a result, believes the city should pull out of the airport business. He said the travel needs of city residents are already being well taken care of by existing New England airports

Homes on Airports in Florida

Very interesting site:

http://floridaairporthomes.com/florida%20airports.php

And check out, it is pretty dam good:

http://www.worcesterlove.com/

and still no word from the airport liaison and the July minutes are still not posted.

Worcester-Metrowest-Boston Airport

Does anyone know that status of the ORH name change?

July Airport Board Minutes

Not on line yet.

15 Coppage Drive

Airport Industrial Park Asset going out to auction this Friday. The building is not going up for auction, but the $200 per year lease that expires in 2026 will be auctioned. Question is why has the Airport Commission terminated the lease when 240,379 in real estate taxes are owed, a violation of the lease.
	WORCESTER, MA - 86,664+/- SF INDUSTRIAL BUILDING ON 12.4+/- AC Property Address: 15 Coppage Dr., Worcester, MA Auction Reference No.: 07-0983 Date: 08/24/07 10:00AM More Info: Manufacturing/Warehouse Building on 12.4+/- Acres 86,664+/- SF, including mezzanine and office area on second floor Located in the Worcester Airport Industrial Park w/ wonderful access to Rte. 9 and Mass Pike Terms: 50K certified, 10% deposit, 30 days to close. Full terms found in PIP.
Click Images to Enlarge

Cape Air

Cape Air may link Evansville and South Bend with a hub, Indianapolis. Cape Air links P-Town, Hyannis, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket with Logan and have a code-sharing agreement with JetBlue. We can not get Cape Air to fly to Logan from ORH?

From the Indianapolis Business Journal:



Cape Air might link Indy to Evansville, South Bend

Thu. August 16 - 2007
IBJ Staff
Massachusetts-based Cape Air has scheduled a meeting Aug. 20 in Indianapolis with airport officials from Evansville and South Bend to discuss starting commuter flights between the two cities and Indianapolis.An official of Evansville Regional Airport told the Evansville Courier & Press that the planes used by Cape Air, nine-passenger Cesna 402s, would be ideal.If round-trip flights can be launched in October or November, as hoped, the cost likely would average $100 to $150.Indianapolis-based Chautauqua Airlines operated flights between Evansville and Indianapolis on behalf of USAirways until the 2001 terrorist attacks hurt air travel.

ORH Tenants Are they Happy?

Alot of people check out this blog, on average 100 per day. I would like people to put comments about what they have heard from current tenants at ORH regarding their feelings about the airport.

Thanks

Bill

Boston Herald

FYI-The Boston Herald has a section in the middle of their web site called your tax dollars at work, which salaries of State employees as well as various cities in the Commonwealth, including Worcester.

Rockford Story

Great story on Rockford from AZCentral.com. Here is part:


The airport went from a passenger count of about 1,400 in 2002, when O'Brien started with the airport, to more than 230,000 this year, he said, with the name change occurring in phases through those years.

He expects to eclipse the 300,000 passenger count next year, but O'Brien said changing the name was only a small part of that."It starts first with convincing the airlines. When we're trying to sell them on RFD, they're staring at us like, 'You live in the shadow of the world's busiest airport and you've got no passenger service, what are you nuts?' " O'Brien said. "We said, 'I don't want you to start service to Rockford, Illinois, I want you to start service to Chicago-Rockford, a backdoor to 13.1 million people.' "

Airport Liaison

Still no word on my July 20th records request.

Rockford Gets Two New Allegiant Destinations

Rockford already flies to the three destination cities that Allegiant has:

1. Vegas
2. St Petes
3. Sanford

Recently Allegiant announced the addition of two new destination cities:

1. Mesa
2. Fort Lauderdale

Rockford is getting both. For a full story check out Tom Bona's story in the Rockford Register. Although it would have been very tough, if not impossible to have flights to Vegas/Mesa from ORH. There is no way we should have lost Allegiant and today we should have three destinations from ORH to Florida.

Master Plan

In December of 2005, I attended a meeting conducted by Leigh Fisher Consultants, now Jacobs, on the Master Plan. We were told that there would be another meeting in the Spring/Summer of 2006 with the final results being released in the fall of 2006.

Flash forward to August, 2007, no 20 Year Master Plan yet? As we are posed to make a huge decision on the future of ORH would it not make sense to have this 20 Master Plan in hand?

Poll

Versus put the MassPort count-down back on the blog, I want to do a poll. THANKS YNG!!! Please leave comments for potential polls.

Virgin America

Has their first flight yesterday. Is ORH talking to them?




PS Still not word on my last public records request.

June Airport Commission Minutes

Click here. It amazes me that things like Thrifty Car Rental are covered in such detail but negotiations with any potential airlines or on-going negotiations with MassPort are not even mentioned.

Still no word on my latest public records request from Airport Liaison Niddrie.

Rockford -- 19.500 More Passengers in July then ORH

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) - The Chicago/Rockford International Airport had more than 19,500 passengers last month -- the third-best performance since 2003. The only two months that were better were March 2005 and March 2007 -- prime spring break months.

In all, 19,656 passengers passed through the airport in July. That was a 19% increase over the same period last year. And July marked the second straight month in which planes were more than 90% full.

Airport officials hope the strong showing will persuade airlines to increase their offerings in Rockford. In particular, officials are looking to Allegiant Air. Rockford is among the cities the airline is considering for expanded service to Phoenix/Mesa, Arizona, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Allegiant Still Doing Great

Discount airline Allegiant Air saw its second quarter profit jump 112 percent compared to the previous year with a growing number of passengers flying to Las Vegas and Orlando, Fla., along with expansion into Tampa. Allegiant's second quarter net income was $10 million compared to $4.7 million in the second quarter of 2006.

Total operating revenue was $88.9 million, a 49.1 percent increase over $59.7 million during the second three months of last year. "Both Las Vegas and Orlando were substantially stronger year over year, with Orlando's improvement significantly outpacing that of Las Vegas," said Michael Gallagher Jr., Allegiant chairman, CEO and president, in a statement.

Airport Privatization

Please read the attached story on privatization. The City of Worcester should not be in the train station business, the golf course or airport business. At the same time the City Administration should ensure the highest return on these tax-payer assets. Take a a few minutes and read this story, well worth it.

Still no word from Airport Liaison Niddrie on my request.

Route Analysis Reports

In the past I had asked to see the packages that are prepared for airlines to come to ORH that are prepared by our consultant, IMG. In the end I changed my mind, since I did not want to interfere with any pending negotiations or be blamed for losing a potential airlines. Some people disagreed with my decision, but everyone has the right to request this information on their own. For the record I have never seen these presentations.

Recently, however, I have asked for route analysis reports that have been prepared by our consultants. In fact I feel that these should be placed right on the City of Worcester Official Airport website so potential airlines can see them. Although it has been more then 10 days, I have yet to hear anything .

Allegiant Adds Two Destination Cities

Allegiant originally started with service only to Las Vegas. In 2005 they added Sanford (Orlando) then towards the end of last year or beginning of this year St Pete's (Tampa) was added. Now they have announced Fort Lauderdale and Phoenix.

Although Vegas and Phoenix would have have been viable options out of ORH with the Allegiant fleet, ORH could have potentially had three Flroida destinations if Allegiant had stayed.

15 Coppage

In the newspaper today the leasehold interest is being foreclosed on by the Massachusetts Property and Casualty Insurance Companies Community and Economic Development Initiative. Although it is a great lease couple hundred per year through 2026 wonder if they know about the 250,000 in taxes due?