People flying in and out of Stewart International Airport say they are having an exceptional flying experience. Just one problem: there are not enough of them.
Although the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey”™s newest acquisition has been weathering the economic storm, its passenger numbers are not expected to exceed 400,000 this year after reaching twice that number before Wall Street collapsed in 2008.
A recent survey conducted by the Port Authority finds most of its customers are extremely satisfied with the service, the amenities and ease of use at the New Windsor airport, but the lack of flights and their frequency are the number one gripe airport officials are dealing with.
The purchase of Air Tran Airways last week by Southwest Airlines, both of which were once on Stewart”™s tarmac, fly out of Westchester County Airport. The acquisition prompted Stewart Airport Commission member Louis Heimbach to ask if there were even a “remote chance of getting them back here” at the commission”™s Sept. 28 meeting.
The commission discussed JetBlue Airway”™s announcement that service to Fort Lauderdale will be reduced Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from Nov. 1 to Nov. 17. “This is part of JetBlue”™s changeover to new jets,” said airport general manager Diannae Ehler, “and is happening at several airports around the country, including Kennedy … it is temporary and only affects that time period and only flights to Fort Lauderdale. They”™ll be back in full operation by November 18.”
Ehler said the Port Authority is in constant negotiations with all airlines; and with higher passenger loads than it has had in the past two years, it hopes to eventually lure them back. Ehler is touting the airport to Rockland County fliers, encouraging them to choose Stewart rather Liberty (Newark) International Airport. Nearly half of the airport”™s customers are coming from Orange and Dutchess counties.
Ehler told the commission, “People in Rockland are set in their ways. They are 45 minutes from Newark, and 45 minutes from Stewart. It will take some doing to alter the mindset.” It will also take more direct flights and more carriers to bring in customers, Heimbach said.
While Stewart readies its international customs area for charter flights that are scheduled to begin in February, Ehler added the recent meeting of the U.N.”™s General Assembly helped put Stewart on the map for many of the airlines flying diplomats into New York. “We haven”™t stopped campaigning to get more airlines,” Ehler assured commission members. “If anything, the fact that so many planes were diverted here during the U.N. meeting got us positive media attention.”
The Port Authority has also taken three of its buses and refurbished them for use on the airport grounds. Ehler says they are strictly for in-house use, whether to get diverted passengers downstate or to eventually ferry passengers to and from the airport”™s expanded parking area, which expects to open by mid-October.
Ehler also discussed a media release by U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer on Sept. 27 touting the possibility of the Port Authority, the New York Power Authority and Taylor Biomass L.L.C. working to provide electric power to Stewart.
“The fact this ”˜news”™ was released before anything was official was awkward,” Ehler said. Although she acknowledged the Port Authority is working with the New York Power Authority to purchase electricity for the airport, buying it from Taylor Biomass”™ gasification plant ”“ which has yet to be built in Montgomery ”“ was “premature.”
The Port Authority is also taking a close look at the wildlife that calls the areas surrounding Stewart”™s fencing home, including deer, coyote and mute swans, which can be a direct danger to jets during takeoff and landing.
“We already know we have a serious geese problem,” said Jim Wright, commission chairman. “There are people down at the Newburgh waterfront feeding them … I suggest we put the waterfront on notice this is not helping the airport.” The PA will also study the effects that Stewart Forest, 6,500 acres abutting the airport, has on controlling the animal and bird population at the next commission meeting Nov. 30.
