Barger, JetBlue CEO, said that the Providence airport appears well prepared to handle JetBlue flights. “I think we’re real impressed with what we saw with the infrastructure in Providence,” Barger said. By contrast, he said that Worcester Regional Airport needs significant upgrades to improve passenger access and navigational aids. “I mean, it gets a little foggy up there,” Barger said.
- What are the navigational aids he is referring to?
- How much will they cost?
- Are there any plans in the works to have this done?
Andy Davis
Worcester Regional Airport
18 comments:
The full comment was "By contrast, Worcester Regional Airport, located at a high elevation and surrounded by residential neighborhoods, lacks highway access and needs significant upgrades to navigational aids for takeoffs and landings in bad weather. “I mean, it gets a little foggy up there,’’ Barger said."
That explains perfectly what he means.
I think the obvious question is:
What is the cost to upgrade the ILS to CAT-II?
In the past, what percent of aircraft heading to ORH have been diverted due to low visibility?
What would the estimated percentage be if ORH had a CAT-II ILS installed?
ADavis@MassPort.com if someone else wants to try
Also I did not ask him to comment on any airline discussions?
I was simply trying to understand what the CEO of JetBlue was refering to when he said ORh was lacking with some navigational aides.
bill, its obvious he isnt going to give any answers. and why should we be surprised, this is massachusetts. atleast you tried. maybe you can contact the worcester telegram gazette, or the boston herald(i read the herald, not the globe, but if you prefer globe thats fine too) im sure someone would like to do some investigative journalism. since taxpayer money is being used to keep a empty airport open, im sure people want to know what, why, and whats next.
Jose
I actually thought the ORH airport director might actually answer my question and finally see the benefit of a blog like this. Hell, maybe he would start posting comments on it . Can you imagine the CEO of JetBlue has a Twitter account!!!
Instead he has says that he does not want to address ongoing airline negotiations on the blog? I never asked him to....
I will not e-mail him this comment, since I know he reads it here.. ,
Andy trying to sell the benefits of your airport using the example of an airline that just stiffed your customers and creditors to the tune of what potentially may be 50 million may not be the best sales tactic to get another airline?
Maybe you should reach out to JetBlue yourself and ask them what were they were referring to when they mentioned better navigational aids at ORH and post your answer on the blog?
Bill
PS Your are welcome here anytime to post comments.. It would be a hell of alot cheaper then to take a full page ad out in the Worcester Telegram.
BIll
How the hell can the CEO of JetBlue make a comment in the Boston Globe as to why he does like ORH and our own airport director does not know about it.
When it is pointed out to him, he then tells me to find out what the CEO of JetBlue meant?
bill, in other words stop asking him. what does he know? hes only airport director making over 100k in tax payer money. he doesnt have any answers.
Bill- This blog is starting to sound more like a publicity stunt than a conduit for logical discussion.
Steve has pointed out numerous times what the navigation issue is.
He has also pointed out quite logically why this Jet Blue "one light a day" mantra isn't possible when real world operational/cost issues are factored in.
Jet Blue is not the airline you should be lobbying for, Cape Air is. Cape Air plus a regional airline with service to a hub such as Philidelphia, Newark, Atlanta, or Chicago is a recipe for success.
Jet Blue is not the airline that you should be logging
Anonymous
Many times we have mentioned Cape AIr with a code sharing agreement with JetBlue like they do out of P-town, Hyannis, Vineyard and Nantucket.
I never said Steve was wrong? In fact I think he is right but how about some confirmation, are there plans to do this and when?
Instead of not lobbying for JetBlue , lets address the operational issues and cost. Charge ORH more per ticket then Boston.
Bill
anonymous:
in fact bill has mentioned many times to bring back allegiant airlines, a former carrier, that has revived old routes with other airports recently. jetblue has been talked about alot the last few days cause last september they were looking to increase flights either at providence or worcester to increase the boston/new england market. jetblue didnt like orh much cause of the upgrades it needs to the navigation system. a major airline is telling us whats wrong, and mr. davis is playing dumb. recently massport announced that jetblue is going to get its own terminal at logan, when a few months back they were looking at adding flights out of orh. during this same time allegiant air revived a old route from washinton state. we are just private citizens thinking out loud here, enough so that the author of this blog emailed the airport director for answers and got nothing.
Anonymous:
I have pointed out one of the many possibilities that the navigation issue could be.
Maybe the next question should be addresses to Mr. Barger. "What specific navigation upgrades are necessary for Jetblue to consider Worcester a viable alternative?"
Please do not say I am nit picking, but, if I am correct, MR Davis could be a bit more tranparent with his statistics.
270,000 DA passengers in reality probably means about 140,000 round trippers used DA in a 3 year time frame. I say this b/c probably 99% of DA passengers are round trippers, as in the same person
1,460 DA comm. operations in 3 years. Thats 470 DA comm ops per year per or about 9 per week. I wonder what a comm. operation is? Did DA fly into ORH on average 9 times a week? Someone please help me here. If DA flies into and out of ORH is that 1 comm. op or is it 2 comm. ops? I am guessing it is 2..??????
150,000 airport operations. Is a flight school touch and go routine considered 1 airport operation? If so, this is misleading. What exactly is an airport operation?
And why do so many public figures tend to use multiple years in their analyzes. B/c it makes the numbers appear higher? For eons a single year has always been the standard. I earn $50,000 a year, not $150,000 every three years :)
I do understand Mr Davis being a bit concerned about using a blog for communications, esp. given the apparent havoc that blogging, emails, & twittering seemed to have cause in Worc of late.
Also Mr Davis says (and I paraphrase) it takes time to get an airline to an airport. Agreed. But Massport has had legal ownership of the airport for 21 months and failed to bring any new comm. jet service to Worc. Then add in that Massport had 100% control (long term lease) of the airport for 9 years prior to that and yes, it does become rather apparent that it takes a long time to get a new comm carrier to Worc. In fact it takesa long to NOT get a new commm carrier to worc.
Please do not confuse Mr Davis's tenure at ORH (2 yrs?) with Massports 11 year tenure
I do want to thank Mr Davis for responding. It would be nice to hear from you again.
Jahn,
A flight school touch and go is two operations, not one.
One landing.
One takeoff.
Jet Blue was asked in the story about providing service to PVD and ORH, they never said they wanted to. They simply stated the current position of the airports relative to their operational needs. This is an analysis they would do for any airport. You are letting a misleading slow news day story skew common sense. Jet Blue isn't coming to ORH, period.
I hope Worcester is able to work an agreement with an airline soon, but to paraphrase an old cliche "Jet Blue is out of your league."
Anonymous
We know JetBlue did not say "they wanted ORH". But we do know the CEO said that we need better navigational aids.
The whole point of this was to find out 1) exactly what he was referring to and 2) are we making these improvements. Pretty simple request???
Now after all of this time and comments I still don't know exactly 1) what he meant or 2) if we are doing anything.
I am not letting a misleading story skew common sense?? I am trying to figure out how we overcome an objection that was clearly laid out in the newspaper.
Amazing how smart "anonymous" commenters are?
Bill
TY you steve. That further drives home my point that 150,000 commercail air oparations in 3 years includes gazzillons of air school "touch n go's" and IMo is at best lacking in transparency, misleading, not the "whole story" behind comm aiprort ops, almost a form of subterfuge, is very Obuma-esque, and is very "spin" oriented.
And please once again WTH is the CC these last 21 months on airport issues? Dittos for Worc C. of C. and other gov't depts that S/b asking more pointed questions of Massport than the Supreme court justices asks of incompetent barristers.
How about we make Worc Airport into a case study for the Harvard Business School. Fact of the matter is business school prob. cant be bothered studying government orgaizations, b/c they know that no one will heed their recommendations.
From personal knowledge. Mr. Davis is a nice guy, however, he's more likely to be walking around the airport taking pictures of planes with his camera than negotiating with airlines. Do not be fooled by the "we re talking with airlines" bull. That's a famous line used at ORH. If they actually were talking with airlines as much as they say, that place would be O'Hare. ORH no longer even has an FBO as Swissport closed shop because of bad blood with Massport. So not sure how they're even going to run GA operations now. Sadly, the future of that place is dim at best.
Frank R.
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