After eight years on the job, Westchester County Department of Transportation Commissioner Lawrence Salley does not quibble about the relationship between airport activity and economic activity.
“There is a definite correlation,” Salley said.
His philosophy bodes well for the regional economy as Westchester County Airport numbers have engaged the afterburners. And Stewart International Airport witnessed a 195 percent jump in passengers in 2007 over 2006, serving 913,927 passengers.
The Westchester County DOT conducted an economic analysis of airport activity in the 1990s and is conducting a second one now with the results to be released later this year.
“The airport”™s economic impact in the 1990s was $700 million per year,” Salley said of Westchester, citing traditional trickle-down benefits as “auto rentals, restaurants, hotels.” But he also cited the less tangible benefits: “The airport is an effective tool for attracting new businesses. Many corporations look to relocate here because of the airport.”
And Westchester County Airport is booming: from about 900,000 passengers in 2006 to 1.6 million-plus in 2007 and perhaps 1.7 million in 2008.
Salley said the arrival of AirTran and JetBlue and their discounted fares to the South were responsible for the surge.
The passenger numbers also reflect the introduction in 2004 of larger airplanes ”“ the 155-seat A-320 and the 717 jets. Also that year, according to Salley, the airport entered into a federally monitored passenger and flight volume agreement, one of only two nationally to be so restricted. John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Calif., is the other.
If the stock market provides snapshots of the economy, airport activity reflects data that works, too, if at a less frenetic pace.
“There is an absolute direct correlation between economic activity and activity at the Port Authority airports,” said Pasquale DiFulco, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
DiFulco said activity at New York”™s big three airports ”“ JFK, LaGuardia and Newark ”“ plus to a lesser degree Stewart International Airport, accounted for $60 billion in economic activity last year and paid out another $20 billion in wages to airport employees.
“Roughly half a million jobs are supported by the four airports,” DiFulco said.
“For example,” Pasquale said, qualifying the economic activity number, “let”™s say you have a restaurant near an airport on the margins. And suddenly it has a smaller pool of potential customers. You can draw a correlation between fewer passengers and fewer customers.”
On the positive side, when the Port Authority expands a facility, economic activity spills into the community. Said DiFulco: “The Port Authority”™s 10-year capital plan ”“ 2007 to 2016 ”“ calls for $29 billion for all facilities. That works out to $500 million, or $50 million per year, for Stewart.”
DiFulco cited Drury Lane work, a new 350-car parking facility and new passenger seats in the terminal as recent Stewart upgrades that benefited regional contractors.
But capital projects wend through long approvals. Passenger and freight numbers provide a quicker barometer of activity.
“Airport numbers track reasonably well with economic activity,” said Jeffrey Zupan, a senior fellow at the Manhattan-based Regional Plan Association, an 80-year-old nonprofit planning research and advocacy group. The economically troubled mid-1970s witnessed a drop at the big three airports from 42.3 million passengers in 1973 to 38.9 million in 1975 before rebounding to 41.9 million in 1976. The data are telling because they encompass the first, and worst, of the oil shocks of the 1970s, embracing late 1973 and early 1974.
The three major airports handled 109,983,372 passengers last year, up about 6 million, or 5.4 percent, from 2006.
As the nation and particularly the Northeast took economic hits from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, so the data show up at the airports. The big three”™s passengers were at 92.4 million in 2000; dipped to 81.8 million in 2001 and 81.1 million in 2002; and rebounded to 93.9 million in 2004.
But, Zupan said, “What”™s interesting about the big three is that they historically experienced continuous growth despite economic downturns. Much of that growth was tech-driven.”
He cited the arrival of bigger, faster jets requiring more passenger space and longer runways as fueling JFK”™s 1960s growth and LaGuardia”™s building spree in the 1970s.
The Port Authority”™s Stewart numbers that show robust passenger growth also indicate an economy tapping the brakes: Total freight data were down in December from December 2006 by 16.6 percent and down 0.7 percent for all of 2007.
