Paul Comment
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Jetson’s right, they did put a listing out for more TSA agents at ORH and Andy Davis mentioned that they want to expand TSA either by making the current area bigger or opening a second security checkpoint. Work still needs to be done however, we’re 2 weeks away from being halfway through 2023 and I haven’t seen any equipment on 29/11 starting the second half of rehabilitation. Yes, they’ve been working around the runway and other areas but what the grant was specifically for the work hasn’t started on yet. It is a pain though because 15/33 is only 5,000 feet which isn’t long enough for the A320 so the scheduling of the JetBlue flights could be the reason it hasn’t started yet.
There’s still a lot of questions that haven’t been answered yet that people are wondering. How come the rehabilitation work hasn’t fully started on the actual runway? Why have all the trees around the airport and especially at the area near runway 33 been taken down? If the Fort Myers, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando flights are all doing 80-90%+ in February and March, how’s parking going to look at the airport? What is the actual master plan of the airport? We hear it talked about all the time but nothing is actually posted on it. There’s just a lot of questions that haven’t been answered yet that hopefully do get answered sooner than later. I wish there was a way where every 3-6 months, residents and other people could go to ORH and be involved in a meeting with Massport and give input or ask questions, it would let a lot of people know more info and stuff like that.
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2 thoughts on “Paul Comment”
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I read Paul’s comment with great interest. I also watched the Spectrum News post, with great interest. I’m assuming that the reason Paul’s comment was elevated to a post was for Bill to reinforce his interview comments that Massport “has no clear plan for a successful airport”.
It’s regrettable that Paul’s questions and Bill’s conclusions are simply the result of not being engaged with what’s going on at the airport. I love this airport and I use this airport, I talk to the people who work there. And as a result, the transparency they have with the goings on leaves no mysteries. So I’m baffled that if Paul has questions, and Bill doesn’t know what’s going on, why haven’t they simply asked Massport?
Here’s what I learned by talking to them.
TSA expansion will be ready for Ft Myers and winter crunch.
No work on 11/29 yet? Scheduled for August. They can’t do anything until they get FAA funding then only after some environmental things involving some “nesting birds” doing their thing. The schedule will be overnight and phased to ensure 11/29 is available for the airlines. Work will be done by fall.
Trees being taken down? It’s their FAA required vegetation management plan requirements. If trees grow too tall, then the FAA will restrict approaches. Don’t believe me? Read up on Westerly, RI airport. They had to shorten their runway, because private property owners wouldn’t allow their trees to be trimmed.
Parking’s a good question. I don’t have an answer to that yet. I’ll have to ask. But I have a suggestion. Jack the prices up for terminal parking from $7 per day to $20 per day, and make a deal with Worcester State to park cars at their remote lot for $7 per day. Heck that’s what the other airports are doing…… “park cheap at our airport” (you just have to take a shuttle).
Master plan? Why don’t you ask for it? They probably need one for FAA funding.
Maybe the people that have questions are simply out of the loop and should start attending the events where massport is represented. Heck, I think their “plan” was pretty well laid out when their CEO gave a talk at Holy Cross a couple months ago.
Better yet, maybe it’s time for Bill to make this website more useful to truly promote the airport instead of using it to sling mud. As a “local businessman who believes the airport can be a great asset”, maybe he can be more proactive by actually “asking” Massport the questions Paul and others have and report back? I mean even blogger Turtle Boy does thorough research, asks questions and reports back instead of just taking the route of “ready, fire, then aiming”.
Massport has released their FY23-27 Master Plan for ORH along with every other facility they own. The runway repave is slated for FY24 (The Massport FY starts July 1st),, so it’s completely normal that the runway work hasn’t started. It won’t start until at least the 1st. Probably later on in the summer. Also the new taxiway is slated as FY24 as well. So I’d expect that to start maybe this late summer/fall. Who knows really. As for the trees, no idea. If one takes a look at the document, there is in fact a plan for a new taxiway in FY26 that extends Bravo from Alpha to the actual end of Rwy33. Look at Google maps & you’ll understand. FY27 includes another new taxiway again that’s an extension of the new one coming this year. The document calls it a reconstruction of Foxtrot but I highly doubt it’s going to be in the same physical location as the old decommissioned Foxtrot would serve absolutely zero purpose. I’d imagine it’s the continuation of the parallel taxiway in stages (one this year, one probably summer 2026 (FY27)), but again not certain as I haven’t seen any official documentation.
As for the A320 using 15/33…..well. No idea how that’s going to play out tbh. Not only is it only 5,000ft, it’s also only 100’ wide vs the 150’ standard for most commercial airports. Plus it only has a RNAV approach for 33 and zero approaches for 15. Visual only. No ILS for either runway. So yea…if an A320 uses it, more power to them. Someone better get a video.
I also mentioned in a comment a few posts back about JB dropping to 5x a week for MCO & FLL for most of the summer. No flights are available for Tues & Wed all summer long. Looks like daily service will NOT be a thing. That & come February, they’ve quietly dropped the daily service for RSW (Fort Meyers) that’s supposed to start the 2nd week of Feb. (2x a week starting January, daily starting 2nd week of Feb), this is now only selling online as 2x a week period for the entire seasonal duration of the flight. If anyone can get confirmation of this besides the JB booking website it would be appreciated.
I suggest everyone to take a look at the Massport FY23-27 pdf as well. There’s a lot in there for Worcester. 3 new taxiways, a reconstruction of the main drive into the airport, a 2nd level of parking (proposed but listed as unfunded), etc etc. It’s a good read.