Sutner drives to Providence and finds out:
- JetBlue does not care about an access road
- JetBlue wants better signage, we are doing that
- JetBlue wants Cat III landing equipment, MassPort will doit
- JetBlue wants daily flights not weekly
But here is the big one Dave Barger, the CEO of JetBlue, will be here again in August. What day, we can find out.. Do we line Pleasant Street like we did for Bill Clinton many years ago? No. I got an idea, lets leave it up to the Chamber of Commerce to come up with something.. Wait a second they are too busy working on last year's financials. Where was GoLocal Providence? Still confused by their headline that JetBlue picked Providence over Worcester...
What do we do? I do not know, but consider this. Social Media is very important to JetBlue!!!! What can we do the day Mr Barger comes to ORH that will show JetBlue how badly we want their services at ORH??
I do not know the answer but lets come up with some ideas...
8 comments:
City Hall to roll out a 'blue carpet' for JetBlue?
Harry T
Worcester,MA
I touched on what needs to be upgraded at ORH months ago. It has always been a standing issue with every airline that looks at ORH. Neither the city nor Massport has ever addressed it. I ma not holding out any hope that they will this time either.
1. Throw out the first pitch at a Tornadoes Game
2. Tour of the 10 colleges that parents fly/in out to see their kids.
3. Peitition on the Worcester website, where residents/local stakeholders can sign and leave comments like 'I hate the traffic headed to Logan, I will support Worcester Airport'
Also - Great job by Sutner to get to the real issues JetBlue faces, and why they aren't in Worcester yet.
Re-install the concrete bunker/foundation support for an airport directional sign in front of your office identical to the bunker they put in 10 years ago, never used, and then removed.
My memory & facts correct?
Only problem is the Jet Blue CEO will probably not travel Pleasant St to the airport. Probably fly in?
Can teh C of C at least afford to take the CEO to Annies Hot Dogs for a meal?
Would one of you air travel afficiandos please explain to me what it is that is inadequate about landing system in place now? If it was good enough for DA and Allegiant....??? TY
Paulie's Jazz and JetBlue festival?!?!?!?!
XOXOXO,
Count Wonderland
Has passenger parking capacity been considered? I can remember the lot being pretty busy during peak periods when DA were flying. If JetBlue are serious about daily flights then parking capacity becomes a bottleneck. Tying a commitment to increasing parking capacity at ORH to JetBlue's arrival may be a way to demonstrate long term engagement by Massport / CoC.
As for Jahn's question: a Cat III ILS system permits automated landings for appropriately certified aircraft and crew. Cat I (the current ORH setup) requires certain minimum horizontal and vertical visibility levels. In general, Cat III systems are only required when the weather is very poor, Cat I usually is enough. It's a real shame that the location of ORH makes it susceptible to those very poor conditions though. JetBlue want to make sure that whatever the weather they can continue operations (no coincidence that PVD has a Cat III ILS system on runway 05).
Lack of Cat III at ORH wasn't an issue for DA or Allegiant as their aircraft or crew (or both) weren't certified to use it.
TY Anonymous. It's coming back to me that I may have asked that question before and then forgot the answer.
Does this mean that the often cited inability to land at Worc Airport in poor visibilty conditions now becomes a none issue or if not a non issue, at least much less of an issue. I do realize of course there are other naturally occurring conditions that can also cause flights to be diverted.
Shaping up to be another nice weekend. Everyone enjoy it now! Paulie must have a nice tan by now and South Chatham Liqours must be out of Guinness :).
Most welcome Jahn.
JetBlue have and continue to invest a lot of money into initial and continuing certification of aircraft and crew for Autoland capability. The only reason for that expenditure is to prevent poor weather at one of their destinations causing a delay and backing up the rest of their schedule.
If you look at the portfolio of airports JetBlue uses, the vast majority are Cat III ILS equipped (those which are not tend to be in areas where the weather is historically less of an issue). Asking JetBlue to use (an often weather bound) ORH without Cat III ILS capability is in a nutshell asking JetBlue to voluntarily accept a weak link in their chain. I'm pretty sure that will remain a deal breaker.
As owners of multiple airports, Massport does have a little leverage (and if I was betting this would be how I'd place my chips) to apply here however. They could as a temporary measure make a commitment to installing Cat III ILS at ORH (this is not only expensive but time consuming). While the installation and commissioning work is progressing invite JetBlue to use ORH with a promise that in Cat II / III conditions they could divert to Logan with all additional transport and logistics costs (moving waiting and arriving passengers etc) assumed by Massport.
If the vision for ORH is truly to grow into a prosperous regional airport then installation of Cat III ILS is inevitable. All Tier 1 carriers are moving this way and are being actively encouraged to do so by the Federal Aviation Administration (this is why there is talk of the FAA shouldering some of the bill for Cat III installation at ORH). Until then, the stark reality is that without Cat III ILS I can't imagine any of the large carriers rolling the dice at ORH when there are other surer bets close by.
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