Sick of people saying we "bash" the airport here???
"Don Simpson" and the other fake accounts who obviously have a vested interested in ORH, whether the loads are 0 or 100% , need to give it a break.
We want Worcester Airport to big a true reliever airport for Logan. Right now we are very far from that and in all honestly the numbers/services we provide need to get much better!!
The truth is the truth--sorry....
Comments
THE GOOD:
I left right from my office to the airport to catch the 5PMish flight for a board meeting. There was a flight taking off as I drove up the hill, and one disembarking as I entered the airport after parking (across the street-awesome!). There were people filling the gate that were on my flight. I've never seen ORH so busy! Very encouraging. Many folks were taking a cruise out of FLL the next day, so maybe CRUISE LINES ARE RECOMMENDING ORH? Some folks were from the area but not super close to Worcester THAT WOULD BE A GREAT MARKETING STRATEGY, ORH.
I got there about 10 min before boarding. after getting in a decent day's work. Try that at Logan.
The plane was FULL. Lead flight attendant was funny, which was good because of the BAD I'm going to describe.
The BAD: We were delayed for 2 hrs, 45 minutes because a lens cover on a taxi light was cracked. We could fly with it and it could be fixed later, but it still had to be logged by a mechanic, and ORH has no mechanics. It took almost 3 hours to get a mechanic to ORH and do some paperwork and get us cleared. I missed my dinner with a friend in So Florida that I figured was a good excuse to come in a night early due to this being the only flight out of ORH and I needed to arrive Sat. Cost me a hotel room to do nothing but check in and sleep. As I said, at least the flight attendant was a comedienne. Passengers loved her.
MORE GOOD: Flight back to Worcester was seamless and came in adore 15 minutes early. I easily made a 5 PM meeting in Worcester and a 7PM dinner. Even with all of the flight options to BOS, this would have been impossible almost no matter which return flight I took after a morning meeting.
BAD: This return flight was only about 25% full. You do have to carry your bags from the closest parking up a stairway, but I only carry on anyway. If you have large or multiple bags, park at the other lot on the upper level and you can pull them along the sidewalk. A tad longer walk.
THE VERDICT: Even with the almost 3 hour delay on the ORH tarmac for a tricky tack lens cover issue and no mechanic to file a report, it was still less total travel time than an on time round trip BOS-FLL flight, and certainly MUCH less stress (essentially, stress free). May parking bill after a 4 night stay was only $28! Less than one day at Logan in central parking and no long walk, jet bridge etc.
I'm doing again next week, this time to a conference in Orlando.
Common refrain: "Worcester has an airport?" All from people a short drive from Worcester.
The flight to MCO on a Friday afternoon was nearly full (maybe 5 extra legroom seats empty) and the return flight (mid-day in the middle of the week) was about 30% full, max.
ORH to MCO was on the small jet (4 seats wide) and the return was on the larger jet (6 seats wide)
All in all a superior experience to Logan airport.