Massport is still in the process & planning stages of revitalizing the north area off of Taxiway Bravo for future development, geared towards cargo. Obviously nothing has been announced and so far haven’t heard anything other than studies being done/ preliminary work, etc.
Nothing that can’t be forgotten to time if they decide to abandon the idea. I imagine this will be a fairly non existent story till someone files some construction bid somewhere. Knocking down some old blast walls and repaving some old pavement isn’t really newsworthy.
Once a big name cargo carrier signs an actual lease that will be a story but that’s still a ways away. From what I hear everyone knows Massport is pushing really hard for cargo (most likely Amazon) but at the moment not much is being said as far as what their plans are. I’m sure talks are happening but they just haven’t said what yet.
As for Orlando & a 2nd FLL flight, a different destination, etc; it’s all rumor/shop talk still. JetBlue hasn’t said a word. It’s completely possible that JB doesn’t add a single flight for the next 2+ years. Nothing is certain.
One wrong move on Massports part and the whole airport could flop for the 20th time. I imagine Massport is being very careful as to any future growth in regards to make sure it’s as sound as possible. Their playing the safe route, which in this case is the slow and steady route. They can’t afford another failure and they know it. Whatever future development comes has to stick.
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ORH can easily operate as a passenger and cargo airport. The amount of open land they have for hanger space is something you don’t see at many airports, especially one that has a CAT III landing system.
I would definitely hope that companies like UPS, FedEx, and Amazon would fly their planes here because it can definitely help. Think about how many Amazon facilities are less than 30 minutes away from Worcester Airport. 2 in worcester, Northborough, Charlton, and there will be more coming for sure. UPS has always had a huge relationship with Worcester and Shrewsbury, look at all of the trailers CSX pulls into the Worcester yard that are for UPS, plus they just bought Pan Am railways to get access to the port in Saint John’s, any train that comes from Maine for them will have to go through Worcester and that could be very beneficial to a lot of companies and have a bonus economic effect on Worcester and the intermodal yards.
The empty lot in front of the Wyman Gordon plant in Grafton is becoming a logistics center and delivery hub for a company that’s unknown, but people believe it’ll be Amazon or UPS, wouldn’t surprise me if it’s UPS especially since they don’t have a lot of space up in Shrewsbury.
Passenger wise, imagine what would happen if what Rusty says is true and JetBlue adds Orlando, San Juan, and a 2nd FLL flight. With all the marketing that ORH could get, it would make the airport explode in popularity and possibly make other airlines fight for passengers like Boston has.
Imagine too if American decided to drop JFK, and fly to DCA instead, that would give them a huge boost in ticket sales especially since most connections from American in Boston are either in DC or JFK. If your trying to pitch land and hanger space to companies which the airport is trying to do since they have , why not target an airline like JetBlue or Delta? Make ORH a base where aircraft can be maintained and worked on, flown in and out of for a lot cheaper than Boston, have to pay less for hanger space than Boston, and make it a crew hub as well for airlines.
Look at all of the hotels Worcester has as well, it would have a great economic impact to the city if they did that. It doesn’t have to be an airline’s international planes like the 767 or 777, a 757 and/or an A321 can land at Worcester making it an easy place where if planes need maintenance, they can fly into Worcester and be worked on. It would be a good thing to pitch potentially and mention benefits.
Airlines like Southwest too, they like to fly to airports that are next to big cities, but away from them. For example, they don’t fly into DC, they fly into Baltimore, they don’t fly directly in Chicago, they use another airport. There is other potential there as well
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