DATE: Tuesday, October 7, 1997              TAG: 9710070007

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B8   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   67 lines

HAMPTON ROADS AIR-SERVICE STUDY THE PIE IN THE SKY IMPROVED AIR SERVICE IS ESSENTIAL TO AN IMPROVED ECONOMY.

Norfolk and Newport News leaders are taking the first steps to improve air service in Hampton Roads. Splendid! The mayors of the two cities will co-chair a committee composed of representatives from all of Hampton Roads' localities to help choose qualified consultants to study the matter.

High-quality air service is an essential spur to economic development. Recently published Virginia labor statistics show Hampton Roads' August unemployment rate to be 5.2 percent. That is significantly higher than the overall Virginia rate in August, which was 4.1 percent, and the nation's rate of 4.8 percent.

Hampton Roads needs more jobs, especially better-paying ones. Worker income within the region lags. There are many reasons for this below-average employment and pay performance, but any significant upgrading of air service could improve it.

Which is not to say that the region has wretched air service; it doesn't. Ten major U.S. airlines use Norfolk International Airport in South Hampton Roads. Commuter aircraft and Valujet fly in and out of Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport on the Peninsula. The two airports link Hampton Roads and Northeastern North Carolina to the expressways in the sky. The experts who do the study will attempt to gauge how much better the links could be in this metropolitan area of 1.6 million people.

As writer Debbie Messina noted in her report last week about the projected Hampton Roads Airport System Study, the Norfolk airport is far busier (2.8 million travelers in 1996) than the Peninsula airport (342,500). But the latter airport is more convenient for many air passengers traveling to and from the Peninsula. Growth on the Peninsula assures that demand for air-service there will rise, especially as congestion on the interstates and at the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel and the Elizabeth River tunnels worsens.

Travelers prefer that airports be close to the homes and workplaces where they start and end their journeys. About 30 million travelers a year pass through Washington National Airport, which occupies less acreage than the Norfolk airport; it is at the heart of the Virginia-Maryland-D.C. metropolitan area.

The futuristic super airport being considered for development midway between the Richmond and Hampton Roads metropolitan areas could thrive only if Richmond, Newport News/Williamsburg and Norfolk International Airports were shut down. Absent high-speed rail to whisk passengers to and fro, the proposed super airport would condemn most travelers using it to an hour or more of crawl on overburdened interstate highways. Would air passengers bound for or to Hampton Roads or Richmond welcome that? We think not.

Meanwhile, the multibillion-dollar Denver super airport, which is a costly taxi ride from its namesake city, is sorely underutilized. The promised rail link between city and airport has yet to materialize. But such mass-transit connections are vital. Cities providing mass transit - Cleveland, Atlanta, for example - are at an advantage when competing for travelers and new and expanded industry.

As of now, few, if any, additional hub airports are on the American horizon. Hub airports are typically dominated by a single air carrier. The airline industry seems not to want more. The industry's waning appetite could disappoint any Virginia quest for a hub which, as a recently released commonwealth-commissioned airport study pointed out, lacks one.

A hub airport is a powerful economic magnet. But non-hub airports also can prosper (Norfolk International thrives without a municipal subsidy). Furthermore, air-travel business is destined to expand indefinitely.

So bring on the Hampton Roads air-service study. The region must do all that it reasonably can to be positioned to compete successfully for a significant chunk of it of the enlarging market. We want our share.

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