Mass Loses Millions on Worcester Airport

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Scott Van Voorhis, GoLocalWorcester Reporter

Not long ago greeted as a savior for Worcester’s long troubled airport, the Massachusetts Port Authority is bleeding millions to keep the gates open as the second anniversary of the airfield’s takeover approaches.

And the losses by the public authority are poised to escalate dramatically in the wake of Direct Air’s decision to suspend flights, overnight wiping out roughly 20 percent of the airport’s revenue.

Despite the rising tide of red ink, Massport contends it is ready to keep pumping millions more each year into the money-losing airport as a hedge against future overflow demand at Logan International Airport in Boston.

But the latest in a decades-long string of airline pullouts has some arguing whether it’s time for Massport to pull the plug on an airport that can seem to hang onto an airline.

“It was a joke then and it is joke now,” said Chip Faulkner, associate director of Citizens for Limited Taxation and who use the airport decades ago as a college student in Worcester. “I just don’t know why they just don’t close it down.”

Mounting losses

Massport is on track to lose roughly $6 million by the time it reaches the end of its second year as owner of Worcester Airport, according to a rough estimate provided by authority officials.

The state authority, which generates revenue through fees it charges the airline and the general public, spends $4 million a year to run the airport, bringing in $1 million in revenue, said Richard Walsh, a Massport spokesman.

The state authority is also gearing up to put a new roof on the airport’s terminal and a new HVAC system, a $2.4 million project.

Direct Air’s decision to bail out of Worcester will sharply escalate those losses, wiping out more than $200,000 a year in revenue from everything from airline landing fees to parking revenue, estimated Andy Davis, the airport’s director.

No jets on horizon?

And there is no quick replacement in sight, with months being the earliest a new airline could set up shop, Davis said.

As it stands now, though, it could take a year or even two years, he estimated.

Moreover, it is just the latest in a decades-long history of airline disappointments at Worcester, which has seen airlines come and go every few years, with little consistency.
“At the very minimum, the most optimistic would be months,” Davis said. “There is no one banging on our doors to start operations.”

Still, Massport says it has no intention to throw in the towel. Rather, it contends it is ready to keep on spending money on the airport, even without any airline to call it home.

The airport still earns revenue from corporate jets and rental car agencies.

More importantly, Worcester fits into a larger strategic plan by Massport, which operates Logan International Airport and hopes to eventually divert airline traffic from the busy Boston airport to Worcester, Davis said. Moreover, building a new airport in the densely populated Northeast is just about impossible now.

State Rep. John Mahoney, (D-Worcester) said he also supports keeping Worcester Airport open, with the growth of corporate jet use bringing in airline mechanics and other high-paying jobs.

But he also acknowledged disappointment that Massport hasn’t been able to solve the airline riddle yet, recalling he was “hopefully optimistic” when he first heard the state authority would be taking over the airport.

Mahoney had hoped Massport could use its leverage to convince airlines operating out of Logan to add flights in Worcester.

“I was pretty excited at the time,” Mahoney said. “I am not bitterly disappointed, but I am realistic about it. The airline industry is going through a terrible tough time the last ten years.”

But Davis said there is only so much that Massport can do to prod airlines to set up shop in Worcester.

“I hear that all the time, ‘why don’t you get an airline to fly out of Worcester?’” Davis noted. “In the real world, it’s a business decision. It’s their decision to fly out of Worcester or not.”