Better Late Than Never

3 thoughts on “Better Late Than Never”

1. The thing about the airport we need to remember is there’s only so much it can do in its certain state.

   First, the airport has been getting work done to it before the rehabilitation work begins. I still see a couple of excavators on the bottom of the hills in the airport property next to the runways where they’re clearing trees and stuff like that. There’s a lot of prep work that needs to be done it seems like so who knows actually when they will start repaving runway 29/11.

   It seems like there has been some changes with runway lights and airport equipment. For instance, the airport beacon has gotten brand new lights to it and a lot of runway lights have gotten replaced by LEDs and there’s been new signage on the runways and taxiways to replace the old lights/signs.

   Now the flights, this is the thing about JetBlue ever having their own crew up there, there isn’t a consistent enough schedule for it. Based off the times for the Florida flights in February 2024, you would need a crew for the following times: 530am-730am (FLL flight), 1200pm-5:15pm (Fort Myers/Orlando flights), 11pm-1am (FLL arrival flight). The times are just way too off and JetBlue would be paying people just to sit at home and wait until the flights come in. Plus, even if JetBlue had that schedule, who in the world would want to work that? They just think it’s better to let Alliance Aviation do it (or whoever their contractor is) which honestly it really is better off.
   Note: If the JFK flight still existed in February, it wouldn’t matter crew times. Reason being is FLL flight at that time is at the JFK morning time slot and the mid day JFK flight is usually around when the Fort Myers and Orlando flight would arrive and depart.

   Another small problem Worcester has with its airport (if they expand even further) is the current parking situation. Yes the lower lot was designed to have multiple levels, but right now if you have Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando flights averaging 80%+ load factors in February 2024, parking is going to become tight. I don’t think it’ll become to the point where there’s no spots or people will struggle to find a spot, but to the point where if there was an additional flight or two having massive load factors on a jet like the A320 that has over 150 seats, it would become a problem. When that would ever happen too, where would an overflow lot be?
   It happens more often than not where the main lot is at 100% capacity during busy times like this week for example and the lower lot is about (if I had to guess by driving by every day) at least 60% full.

   Look, I’m all for expansion at the Worcester Airport and I hope it does expand more in the future. But there still needs to be some more
   change. JetBlue has made changes, American and Delta should be next. American really should either get rid of the JFK flight and replace it with either Charlotte, Philly, or DCA. Delta should replace their LGA flight with Atlanta. It’s a known successful model but what isn’t known is why it hasn’t been changed yet or why are they still running these flights with the crap load factors. We don’t know exactly what’s in store after the rehabilitation work is done and the parallel taxiway is completed, but what we do know is Massport is still getting flights out of ORH. These last 2 were more towards families going to popular vacation destinations because the FLL flight has shown that’s successful. They should now focus on getting a destination where it’s good for people who travel for business to popular hubs. I use the FLL every year for my Florida work trip and I have a couple of trips in the fall that I’ll most likely not fly out of ORH because of the times and connection areas not being good to use them but if I could go from my driveway to the parking lot to the gate in 10 minutes for a work trip like I do with the FLL flight, I would do that anytime no matter the price versus taking the train and silver line to Logan.

   Another note, JetBlue only uses 1 gate at ORH. The only time they use 2 now is if a flight comes in very early or late while another aircraft is still there. They used to use 2 and 3 and pay for those gates but now it’s mostly just gate 2.

1. I wanna add to my comment, I just drove past the airport about 40 minutes ago, I’ve never seen the parking lot that packed ever, even before pre covid. It was probably 95% full up top and 80% full below. If the Orlando flight happened today, the parking lot would be nearly 100% full. That is another reason why JetBlue has to drop the JFK flight for the Orlando and Fort Myers flight on top of the ATC shortage. The airport just can’t handle the passenger numbers as of right now until more work gets done to it. February Vacation next year is going to be very interesting parking wise at the airport as it’ll probably be 95% full minimum at both lots.

2. People always sleep on the parking issue until its way to late. People miss their flights daily at New Haven because theirs about 10,000x the number of flights there per day than there is parking. Avelo doesn’t give a crap, their still making money. Thats the airports problem. But it slowly turns people away when they can’t park repeatedly. Come spring 2024 if every flight is sold out, ex. Spring Break, there WILL NOT be enough parking. But like i said. Its never an issue until its too late.

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