September 27, 2010

Southwest buys Airtran

Story

Southwest may seriously now take a look at Worcester

8 comments:

David Z. said...

Bill,

Check your link for the story. It is not working on my end.

Jahn said...

As I have said before, I am still waiting for "somehting big to happen" at the airport. Massport has been up there now 3 months and if something large has happened maybe I missed it. MP has known for eons that they were taking over so I would have expected some immediate large changes at the airport that would have been planned month in advance to be implememted immediatley on July 1st? Am I asking too much? a Nice restaurant or just a basic eatery for openers?

T&G today (sept 28) reports the chief executive of Gardner, the mayor, has issued an executive order that no newly elected city councilors will be able to avail themselves of city paid health insurance. I am opposed to a popularly elected mayor of Worc, but here's a case where one could come in handy. As we all know the city manager is hired by the councilors in Worc so eliminating their health ins and even their pensions would clealry not be in the best interests of Mr CM Obriens career advancement.

If I knew what all teh councilors did for work, I could probably make a good guess as to who avails themselves of city bennies and who does not. I.e. those who run their own businesses would probably be taking the insurance and those who are on another payroll most likely would not. In the same line of thought, I often wonder what kinda bennies these CDC's hand out to their employeees, esp the CEO's of each CDC.

Jahn said...

Bill with SW having a huge presence in both Manchester and Prov, do you really think they'd look at Worc??

Or maybe youre thinking they could consolidate both Prov & Manch. in Worc. Am I a dreamer or what? :)

Bill Randell said...

Jahn:

What did you want MassPort to do? First day they take over bring in all sorts of airlines? Do you know how bad that would make them look?

It will be a slow and steady growth at ORH. Airtran has 137 plans in their fleet. There will be consolidation in their routes and with the excess planes ORH would help them battle JetBlue in Boston.

Bill

David Z. said...

Bill,

I have to agree with Jahn on one point. At the very least I expected brand new signage especially at the left turn onto Airport Drive from Goddard Memorial Drive which I mentioned in another post not long ago. It is relatively easy for a local to find the airport but there needs to be much better signage for “out of towners”. If soemone blinks they would miss the tiny airline sign for the left turn.

David Z. said...

Speaking of the Airport, in this morning’s T&G there is an Ad for a half price sale at Direct Air. What caught my eye is that all 4 destinations are listed (including West Palm). Does this mean that the Myrtle Beach service is year round now instead of seasonal only?

Jahn said...

David Z. said...
Bill,

I have to agree with Jahn on one point.

mIRACLES NEVER CEASE :)

bILL, I never thought of it that way, but you raise a plausible explanation for what I perceive as MPs inaction thus far at Worc airport.

But Bill, I mean why isnt the city squawking, too? Maybe there's a quid pro quo that no one at 446 Main St will say anything about the inaction by MP............Worc's kind of dont ask dont tell.

On the other hand Worc is so used to waiting for things to happen/change that maybe we have lowered our timeline expectations for many things........call it the "City Squaring" of Worc airport or the demolition delay mentality.......sure no problemo Mr. Senor' Massport, we can wait 4+ years before anything happens at the airport. Patience is virtue here in Worcester unless you're a property owner with freshly fallen snow on your sidewalk....then 8 hours is all we can wait.

Last time I,ll say it, Massport has known for months if not years they'd take over Worc airport and during that timeframe they had ample opportunity to conceptualize their plans for the airport. As far as their plans go, IMO the rubber should have met the road on Tuesday July 6th, 2010 after the long weekend?

So..........how many destinations do we now serve and how many trips per week out of the airport? I know that every Thursday mid to late afternoon a big bird comes in...so thats at least one trip ...b/c the thing flies right over moi casa.

David, Signman s/b all over this lack of signage thus far :). Watch those legal ads for a sign RFP?

Then on the other hand no one can make a bigger mess out of signage than the City of Worc. be it ununsed and subsequently demolished concrete sign bases or the Wayfarer Program.......but man we know how to rapidly get out the Little Yellow Boxes with no problem.

Anonymous said...

I live in Leominster and would enjoy flying out of Worcester verses Boston/Manchester/Providence. The current menu is too small. There needs to be more flights and more days for service. A person may be able to find a flight out but no return service. It is currently to complicated to book if you have to return to a different airport. How can feedback be given to direct air?