Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 10, 1991 TAG: 9103100314
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By BETSY WADE THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The alternatives, "satellite" airports, may be farther out of town, perhaps in the opposite direction from the main airport.
But in return: plenty of parking, uncrowded access roads and a remarkable lack of stress.
Because of wider-spaced takeoffs and landings, your plane is far less likely to be 17th in line at 8 a.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration glanced at the possibility of encouraging use of alternative airports last fall when it published "The 1990-91 Aviation System Capacity Plan," which contains a table with this highlight:
"Of the 41 airports forecast to exceed 20,000 hours of annual aircraft delay in 1998, 13 have other commercial service airports within 50 miles."
The 50-mile measurement is straight-line, not by road. The FAA would like to persuade the airlines to move some of their action to a satellite airport; the agency notes that the alternates all have runway systems that could handle more landings and takeoffs than they now do.
But the table carries an immediate message to passengers: In 13 of the 41 potential worst cases, there is another way out of town right now.
John F. Kennedy, La Guardia and Newark, needless to say, constitute three of the 41 airports where airlines can expect planes to experience a total of 20,000 hours (that's more than two years!) of delays a year.
But New York's major airports are also on the short list, the 13 places that have surge tanks ready: Stewart Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., and Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma.
The Long Island airport has been up and running since 1960 and in 1990 1.17 million passengers arrived or left at MacArthur, which uses the airport designation ISL, for the Town of Islip, which owns it.
The airport is served by American Airlines and USAir, and the commuter lines of Continental, Delta, Northwest and United.
All told, they fly 60 direct flights daily connecting with Boston; Bridgeport; Charlotte, N.C.; Newark; Philadelphia; Pittsburgh; Providence, R.I.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Syracuse, and Baltimore-Washington, Dulles and National Airports at Washington.
MacArthur has 1,500 parking spaces; the fee is $5.50 a day.
Stewart is another case altogether. It is a vast former Air Force base of 10,000 acres, 60 land miles from New York City, at the intersection of the Gov. Thomas E. Dewey Thruway, I-87 and I-84.
For years, the state, which owns the airport, and other agencies tried to get the airlines to offer scheduled service at Stewart.
It finally began last April, with American Airlines providing flights to Chicago and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. Other airlines have come in and the airport said that in January 50,000 passengers used Stewart.
To see what a new satellite airport looks like, I visited Stewart, and while environmental organizations have been wary and litigious about its capacity - it can handle the largest jet planes - it is hard to fault the face it presents to the world.
The airport, which uses the code SWF, occupies only 2,000 acres of the total area, and the compact white passenger terminal looks like something constructed of child's blocks.
Stewart sends 26 commercial flights out daily and receives 25. The flights, on American and USAir and the commuter lines American Eagle and United Express, go direct to Boston, Chicago, Raleigh-Durham, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Washington and Kennedy Airport.
Anyone taking a flight to Kennedy on the commuter line American Eagle to connect with an American long-haul flight will pay the fare as if the trip began at Kennedy. To connect with some other airline at Kennedy costs $29 to $81, depending on restrictions.
The other satellite airports with underused capacity, and the airports they could relieve (including distance in air miles), were listed by the FAA as follows:
Manchester, N.H., 35 miles from Logan in Boston; Love Field, 8 miles from Dallas-Fort Worth; Flint, Mich., 48 miles from Detroit; Toledo, Ohio, 42 miles from Detroit; Hobby, 19 miles from Houston International; Topeka, Kan., 47 miles from Kansas City International; Palmdale, Calif., 45 miles from Los Angeles and 40 from Ontario, Calif.; Allentown, Pa., 50 miles from Philadelphia; Reading, Pa., 44 miles from Philadelphia; Atlantic City, 39 miles from Philadelphia; Akron-Canton, Ohio, 34 miles from Hopkins International in Cleveland, and Terre Haute, Ind., 46 miles from Indianapolis.
by CNB