August 30, 2010

Guest Commentator

Bill.....while I now live in Florida, I was born in Worcester. No relation to Jimmy O'Brien the Mayor, or any of your current elected officials, but I have flown in and out of ORH a fair number of times in my life.




I'm happy to see that Direct Air is starting nonstop service from PBI to ORH, but that airline sure has its challenges. If you look for comments about them online, the horror stories about their customer service would make you cringe. If your flight is cancelled or delayed, you are screwed. No other airline serves ORH.

Your comment about having shuttle flights from Worcester to Logan seemed strange to me at first, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. If you could get Cape Air to fly that route, you could connect right with Jet Blue. Go thru TSA security in Worcester, park real cheap, then change planes in Boston. I bet if they ran hourly flights, starting at 5am, it would work. Their planes only hold about 9 passengers, so it's not that big a deal to fill a flight.

I'm sure that Massport would not be excited about adding more small planes at Logan rather than larger ones, but if they're not co-operative, you could do the same shuttle between Manchester and/or Providence. I think JFK, connecting with Jet Blue, is another option for Cape Air type flights.

If you could start getting some passengers to try ORH, you just might be able to get some service back to other major markets.

Funny story. Years ago, I was flying from BWI to Worcester on US Air, shortly after they took over Piedmont. Small jets. Snowstorm. We were informed that ORH was closed, and we were being diverted to Hartford or Providence. They said they'd let us know. The next thing we hear, is for us to prepare for landing in Hartford. I look out the window, and I see the Rhode Island State House! They never corrected it. They said welcome to Hartford, buses would take us to Worcester! I rented a car in Providence and got myself to Worcester.


Barry J. O'Brien
Barry O'Brien & Co.
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410

1 comment:

David Z. said...

The Boston Herald is reporting in today’s paper (couldn’t find a link) that JetBlue airways is launching new nonstop service between Boston and Newark, NJ (Liberty International Airport) with 4 daily flights in early May.

This is the type of service that Worcester needs to attract. IMO, more competition at Worcester airport would make Direct Airlines more customer friendly so the competition wouldn’t steal their passengers.