Fiscal 2023 DIF Account

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Airport Comment

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 RE: "Trust us, Breeze is looking at ORH..As is Avelo" Facts: David Neeleman has publicly stated that Breeze has identified 1000 city-pairs. Pretty long odds for ORH! Avelo has committed itself to a 1.2 million dollar upgrade to NEW HAVEN airport"

 

This comment from "unknown" was questioning the post that we believe Breeze and Avelo are looing at ORH.

 

Breeze: "Neeleman publicly stated that Breeze has unidentified 1000 city pairs".    

Breeze aims to target nonstop routes from smaller cities.     When you say 1,000 pairs, we think that shows Worcester has a great chance to Breeze at ORH????

 

Avelo:   Avelo has committed itself to a 1.2 million dollar upgrade to NEW HAVEN airport"

They are going to base planes out of New Haven.   A plane from there coming to Worcester to fly direct routes is a very distinct possibility.

 

Thanks unknown for agreeing with us

 


 

 

Comments

Common Sense said…
More black helicopter conspiracy theories
Do you have a source inside Massport that is feeding you this information? Every time an airline cancels or reduces service out of ORH your solution is to bring another one in. Worcester Airport has never had a problem attracting airlines. The problem is they can't retain airlines.
You can blame Massport or the airlines, but the real problem is that most residents in Central Ma. don't see it as an attractive option for them. Bringing more airlines in won't solve that problem. It's hard to have an intelligent conversation with someone that is delusional. The fact that only two people care enough to post on ur blog is good evidence of this.
July 10, 2021 at 1:16 PM
ORH Fan said…
Sorry, I have to disagree with the last comment. Massport is a huge part of the problem. Whoever is running things over there seems to be completely incompetent. But this is Massachusetts and mediocre job performance gets you a lifetime appointment. Seriously, this is the 2nd largest city in New England. It's pathetic that the powers that be can't seem to figure that out. People would care more if Massport would give a crap. JetBlue is starting service again in about a month but I bet almost no one knows. There should be a permanent billboard on 290 and also advertisements running constantly. I see billboards in the Worcester area for TF Green and Bradley a lot more than I see anything for Worcester Airport. The only recent thing I recall seeing for Worcester was a billboard that was up for about a month when Delta started service here. I have no interest in driving an hour plus to TF Green or Bradley or Logan. Since I moved back out this way I've actually flown about 75% less over the last few years because the last thing I want to do is be on a plane for 4 or 5 hours then have another hour plus trip home. There is absolutely zero reason why this airport can't be successful. Look at Pease Airport in NH. About the same distance from several other airports as Worcester is but is way more successful with flights to 4 or 5 destinations now. Maybe we need to hire the people running that airport to run this airport instead of the pathetic job that Massport is doing.
July 11, 2021 at 8:36 PM
Common Sense said…
I have often said that Andy Davis was incompetent. He claimed he was blindsided when AA cut back service. He should have checked in with them at least once a month to see if they had any issues. There were also two manor security breaches under his watch. Some whacko stole a gas truck and tried to drive it into the terminal. Then an employee brought a loaded gun into the airport perimeter and blew his brains out (a story that the T&G buried). Massport did the City a favor by buying ORH. They paid the City $17 million for an airport that was losing millions per year. They invested $100 million to upgrade the airport. They worked hard to bring in three major airlines to an airport that had no commercial service. Currently they're losing around $4 million per year just to keep the place running. Every person in our area knows Worcester has an airport. If they don't read about it in the paper then they can see and hear the jets overhead. There have just been so many failures over the years that people don't trust it. Every time an airline cancels service It's another nail in the coffin for the airport. I'm not willing to risk missing an important business meeting in NYC or a $10,000 carribean vacation by flying out of an airport with only one flight per day to my destination. There are 4 major airports within an hour from Worcester with direct highway access. Honestly, there is no reason for ORH to exist. I think the Denver Aiport is an hour from the City. I don't find it hard to get to Logan. The airport van picks me up at my door and brings me right to the terminal. Same thing on the way back. Maybe your too cheap to pay the $175? Although Worcester has 175,000 residents about 35% of them are at or below the poverty level. Most people in our suburbs have not been willing over the years to fly out of our airport.
July 12, 2021 at 12:35 AM
Common Sense said…
The City and the Chamber of Commerce have really done nothing to promote the airport. Once the City pocketed the $17 million (from the sale of the airport) they kind of washed their hands of it. If the City can spend $175 million to build a baseball stadium I don't see why they can't kick in $250K to help market the airport. The Chamber of Commerce has really done nothing to help out either. They did some lame study calling people in our area to ask them about their preferences of destinations from the airport. This type of study is basically worthless because it doesn't translate into ticket sales. If I call someone to ask them if they would like to be able to fly to Bora Bora from our airport they might say yes. That doesn't mean anything because no airline is going to provide that route. If you asked someone if they would like to be able to fly to the West Coast from Worcester they probably would say yes. When it comes time to book their trip they probably would opt for a direct flight from Logan. Why isn't the Chamber kicking in some money for marketing. How about some support from some of the large businesses in our City. They've kicked in a ton of money to support Polar Park. Economic impact from a thriving airport is much larger than a baseball team they only plays 5 months a year. We need to get our priorites right.
July 12, 2021 at 9:20 AM
Anonymous said…
The airport was an underutilized asset which the City realized it could not manage properly or to its potential and sold it to Massport, an entity that can. The upgrade to the instrument landing systems is a perfect example of why the City had to sell the airport to someone that could do something with it.
Besides leisure travel the City's central location in the state and New England puts the airport in a great position for things like Amazon and other freight distribution. Layer that into the mix of potential leisure travel and the airport could become successful.
Now comes the hard work to make it successful: road access to the airport and changing people's travel habits.
Generally people like the easy access to get to airports, Logan, TF Green or Bradley. I have never spoken to anyone who has flown out of Manchester so I do not list it.People like the ease of getting in and out and do not want to drive thru City streets to get to and from an airport.
Additionally, people are creatures of habit and in lieu of flying out of Worcester they are going to Green or Bradly, if they are not flying out of Logan. Now that people are starting to fly again, the longer there are no flight options out of Worcester, people will begin to redevelop their old travel habits which does not bode well for the airport.
I partially disagree with the prior comment that the City should be required to market the airport but I do agree the Chamber should step to the plate.
July 18, 2021 at 6:43 AM
Anonymous said…
As someone who DOES have insider info on literally everything going on at ORH (employed there for almost a decade now, what position or by whom cannot say), T&G lies, the rest of the papers lie & Massport is lying. I can tell you first hand the load factor for all 3 (Delta, JB, & AA) was near 100% every single day. When they claim the load factor’s arnt there, they use handpicked examples of flights, but the norm is well over 80% load (common break even point). Exept the JFK run. That one went anywhere from under 1/2 full to sometimes 100% on seemingly random days. I can recal several days there where 2 pax & zero bags. booked on that flight AA had almost 100% factor on both flights PRIOR to them cutting the AM/PM philly overnight. Their true reasoning for cutting it above my pay grade. Load factor not being there is a flat out lie. Those flights where almost full daily. There’s a larger pawn at play that is causing these airlines to fail. Either Massport is tacking on large large fees making even full flights financially unviable or someone is going out of their way to make the Airport fail. Even before Massport took ownership, Direct Air also was averaging over 80% load factors & should have never left. Their service reliability & the eventual collapse of the company did them in. There have been many airlines about to announce service to ORH that bailed at the last minute. Frontier was going to start in late ‘19. Southwest, yes THE southwest had signed preliminary contracts for ground handling at ORH for service starting in 2020. When COVID came they quietly backed out of the planned service. Since they hadn’t announced it yet, they were able to back out unseen. FedEx was eyeing ORH for a New England hub for YEARS. Several times they have attempted to strike a deal with the city & Massport for building a Cargo Ramp & upgrading the airport facilities to be able to handle their 757’s. Was going to be 757 & feeder service only. No widebody (yet. ORH can and has secretly handled 767’s before that the media missed (private 767 flights for very wealthy people)). FedEx even was going to pay the majority of the cost of the upgrades. Its been cut down each time by the City due to high truck traffic loads expected (again FedEx wants to make it their NewEngland hub). ORH will absolutely succeed with proper management, but currently there is something forcing it to fail. Either it’s Massport or another entity, but it’s not the public. The flights that do fly in are full. As for the private sector the FBO at the field is doing quite well & has steadily grown since it’s opening in ‘16. Swissport before it’s eventual failure was due to lack of management. Lots changed when the new FBO was built. There’s been ups and downs but overal earnings for the FBO have steadily increased. The buyout by Ross Aviation just have the place a holdi mg company with capital to weather the downs. Their currently planning an expansion at ORH. Raising 1 old hangar Thats unused & building a new one. 20k sqft I believe.
July 19, 2021 at 12:33 AM
Anonymous said…
Every flight I have taken out of ORH (all JetBlue to each of the 3 destinations) was full or very nearly full. Every one of them.

Granted, one to Orlando fir leisure did not get off the ground due to there being no one at the airport that could do the minor maintenance required and the flight crew timed out after we sat on the tarmac for 3 hours and the passengers were bussed to either Logan or TF Green, losing an entire day and evening of vacation because we landed late at night.

ORH needs to address the on site mechanic issue.

Every other flight was great with only one delayed for. 2 hours, again due to a maintenance issue
July 20, 2021 at 5:37 AM
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