The Sunshine State may be mired in a subprime swamp, but when it comes to craving palm trees, blue skies and sandy beaches, Florida ranks at the top as the most sought-after destination for Connecticut and New York”™s vacation weekend warriors.
Three regional airports ”“ Bradley International Airport (www.bradleyairport.com) in Windsor Locks, New York”™s Stewart International Airport (www.swfny.com) in New Windsor and Westchester County Airport (www.whiteplainsairport.com) in White Plains fly dozens of flights daily to the region”™s favorite U.S. “hot weather destination.”
The plentiful nonstop flights make Florida especially attractive, since carry-on luggage has become problematic and today”™s visitors like to make a short hop when traveling to the Sunshine State.
Bradley International offers several nonstop flights seven days a week: Delta flies to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, West Palm Beach and Tampa; Southwest flies to Tampa and Orlando; American Airlines flies to Miami.
“Eleven point six percent of all our visitors in 2006 came from New York,” said Lisa DeGroot, press coordinator for Visit Florida (www.visitflorida.com).
“Bradley does offer a few other ”˜hot weather”™ destinations for our customers,” said John Wallace, director of communications. “Southwest has one round trip a day to Las Vegas, US Air flies to Phoenix once a day and Delta offers one round trip a day to Los Angeles. But the real feather we have added to our cap is our first international nonstop, which is our non-stop to Amsterdam. We hope to add more international service as we grow.” Northwest Airlines is the carrier for the Amsterdam flights.
When it comes to Florida, however, Wallace says it is a favorite among travelers because of the availability of flights and the fact that in three short hours, you can be standing on the beach.
Stewart, where the Port Authority is poised to take over on Nov. 1, landed JetBlue and Air Tran earlier this year, tripling the number of passengers who used the airport in the process; both airlines offer nonstop flights to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale daily, and both will be adding West Palm Beach to their roster on the first week of November.
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JetBlue flies to Florida out of Westchester County Airport daily, serving Orlando, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale. Air Tran flies to Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Tampa and Fort Myers.
Like Stewart, Bradley is an inland airport with approximately 2,400 acres of land and can fly in weather that airports closer to the water often get fogged down in. Â “We consider ourselves a strong regional airport,” says Wallace, “and a unique one, since we are owned by the state of Connecticut and managed by the Connecticut Department of Transportation, only one of two in the country that operate under that type of management.”
Jeff Barger, JetBlue”™s chief executive officer, told a recent Orange County Chamber of Commerce meeting that when the Port Authority takes over Stewart, JetBlue hopes to be adding more flights to its roster, including ones to Tampa and to Las Vegas, two of the most requested destinations by people in the Hudson Valley region.
Approximately 7 million people fly out of Bradley each year. The Port Authority said Stewart”™s passenger service will reach between 3 million and 5 million over the next five years as it expands and improves the airport.  Some 1.3 million passengers used Westchester County Airport in 2006.
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