Currently the airport is on track to hit approx 200,000pax for 2022. The airport as a whole commercial wise (terminal/parking/gates/airport facilities) is only designed in its current form for 250,000. There really isn’t much room for growth without major construction.
Everyone says they want numerous more flights. Great, that means the airport needs more parking, needs the new taxiway, probably needs a new TSA baggage area (Very familiar with ORH’s current baggage screening setup), which as I won’t go into detail for security reasons is lackluster at best & can barely handle 150 pax worth of bags for FLL at once, amongst other things.
Everyone wants ORH to blow up flights wise, but without major upgrades this cannot happen without a serious drop in quality of service (take HPN for example), flights waiting for open gate, baggage screening taking too long, congested ramp, etc) As someone who is extremely familiar with day to day operations of the airport, someone who as stood INSIDE the top of the control tower & had the privilege to observe, who has close relationships with numerous employees on the field (side not no I do not work at the airport in any capacity), the taxiway is a necessity.
As I mentioned several months back it’s all part of the 30 year plan for the airport otherwise known as the Master Plan. All airports have one. Logan, Providence, Orlando, JFK, etc. Every airport does a ‘Master Plan’ outlining the goals (expansion wise) of the airport.
For ORH this includes completing the parallel taxiway w/ 11/29; replacing the long term lot directly in front of the terminal with a parking garage; re-configuring the Foxtrot tie downs for cargo; lengthening 15/33, a 5th jetbridge; and some smaller ancillary items.
Massport’s construction of this new Taxiway is going to happen irregardless of commercial expansion,decline, whatnot. It’s just something operations wise the airport has had planned for decades now. It just so happens that building it, will also greatly benefit commercial service in the ways mentioned in my previous post.
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