Fiscal 2023 DIF Account

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Direct Flights To Leisure Destination Or Flights To Hubs

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What is our business plan???
We feel that we have two basic options to market Worcester Airport.
Right now we are doing both.....  


Option 1  Direct flights to leisure destinations.   

  • Market the ease of Worcester, direct flights, low parking rates, short lines etc.
  • JetBlue flights to Fort Lauderdale (FLL) and Orlando (MCO) are example of this.
  • After 5 years we are consistently over 80%

 Option 2   Flights To Hubs  
  • Fly to a hub from Worcester and then connect to anywhere you want to fly
  • JetBlue to JFK, American to Philadelphia and Delta to Detroit are examples of this.
  • These three flights combined have loads in the mid 50's
      


    Results matter..    

    Flights to the hub are not working for Worcester right now.. 
    We need to focus on direct flights to leisure destinations....
    That should be our marketing plan...





     




Comments

Anonymous said…
Direct flights on JetBlue to Las Vegas and Washington, DC (or area). JetBlue adds direct flights from Logan to each of these places at LEAST once a year and they are all full or near full. Adding a direct light or 2 from Worcester would be a boon to the area and ease the massive congestion at Logan that is a constant source of complaints.

Of course, Masport can continue demonizing Uber and making it even MORE inconvenient for passengers, or it could push more flights to ORH.Nah--they will just punish paying customers instead and add more traffic to the Mass Pike.
January 20, 2020 at 11:35 AM
Common Sense said…
If they're getting near 100% loads out of Logan then why would they want to commit a plane (an asset) to ORH just to get 50% loads. Seems smart just to add another flight to Logan or another airport that they have a greater chance of success. Unless Massport is completely inept, I'm sure they've called all the discount carriers by now to pitch ORH. The shaky load factors on our flights are probably scaring them away. These issues are nothing new to ORH. It's been in a cycle of failure since I've lived here (50 years). I thought Massport's clout in the industry would really take us to the next level, but it seems like they're doing not much better than when the City owned it. It all comes down to the people in our catchment area supporting their local airport. It should be obvious by now that most people still favor the other four larger airports within a one-hour drive of our City. They're willing to sacrifice convenience and pay more money to park for the peach of mind of knowing that a delay or cancellation won't be a fatal blow to their vacation or important business trip. It's time to accept that ORH will be no more than a joke to people in the airline business. Find another cause to champion because to continue hoping for a pipe dream is going to create much stress and unhappiness in your life.
January 21, 2020 at 12:58 PM
Anonymous said…
I was the original poster. My point wasn't about my personal pipe dream, it was about addressing the daily headlines about unsustainable congestion in Boston and the unpopular actions by government and quasi-governmental agencies (e.g. Massport, DOT, etc.) that punish citizens by heaping more cost and inconvenience on them as "solutions".

Providing a secondary airport incentive is an actual form of solution that relieves congestion at Logan and adds to the massive traffic nightmare of people on the roads going to all paces Boston/Greater Boston. If the draw to Logan is reduced, there is a corresponding reduction in overall congestion.

I picked in demand flights from personal observation--those are daily draws of all day traffic given the number of flights. I'm sure that there are others.

I'm putting my money where my mouth is in booking my next 3 flights out of ORH. I just happen to need to go to MCO and FLL.

January 22, 2020 at 9:48 AM
Anonymous said…
Your a good citizen. I just hope your flights to FL don't get delayed or canceled, leaving you scrambling to find a flight at a nearby airport to get there. When I fly out of Logan I just use the Knights shuttle. They pick me up at my door and drop me off at the terminal at Logan. It's never taken me more than an hour to get there. I just think it's smart to fly out of an airport that gives you many other options if your original flight is delayed or cancelled. Even if ORH can get to the 300,000 level we had in 1900 it's still going to do nothing to take pressure off of Logan. Not to mention that TF Green, Bradley and Manchester already help relieve pressure off of Logan. For their $117 million investment at ORH Massport got 5 flights at ORH that operate half empty.
January 23, 2020 at 10:27 PM
Anonymous said…
Haha. I DID actually get delayed on my ORH to ZFLL flight for almost 3 hours, Flight back landed early, so all in all it was less total travel time that going to Logan.

I agree with you on Knight's Limo. They are great.


You are also right about the options. I wouldn't use ORH to fly to a place that I absolutely had to be on that same day because of the lack of fallback options that Logan provides. I use ORH if I am flying in the day before (its actually the only way ORH permits you to travel to Florida direct because it takes off later in the day). This way, if its delayed its not a disaster, just late. I suppose if you wanted to lay over you can go to JFK and then to FL (or wherever) but in the winter that increases your chance of delay or cancelation exponentially. Why risk another northern winter weather airport when you don't absolutely have to.
February 2, 2020 at 6:14 AM
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