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Burlington Internation Airport sees strong growth as JetBlue draws fliers to Burlington.

- By Leslie Wright --- Free Press Staff Writer --- Tuesday, October 29, 2002

SOUTH BURLINGTON -- Burlington International Airport has landed in the No. 2 spot on a list of fastest growing airports in the country.

The ranking comes as the airport prepares for a $24 million expansion.

The list was compiled by The Boyd Group, an aviation consulting firm in Colorado. The consultants predict 25 percent growth in passenger traffic at the airport from 2000 through 2008.

Last year 520,000 passengers boarded flights out of Burlington. By 2008, the consultants predict 583,000 passengers will board flights. The airport at Long Beach, Calif., has the top spot with growth predicted at 66.6 percent.

JetBlue's effect

Burlington has benefited from the arrival of discount airline JetBlue Airways and increased use of 50-passenger regional jets, said Brian Streeval, aviation consultant with The Boyd Group.

"It's really because of JetBlue," Streeval said. "The Northeast for many years was pretty stagnant. Basically with US Airways, the fares were high and you didn't see a whole heck of a lot of market stimulation."

Four of the top five airports on the list have recently added service by JetBlue or Southwest Airlines, another discount airline. The increased use of regional jets also has helped the airport. Regional jets are more popular than turboprops and are able to fly farther, making the airport into a regional hub to connect into the national system, Streeval said.

Paying for expansion

Burlington voters will weigh in on the expansion on the Nov. 5 ballot. The measure would not raise taxes. The bonds would be paid for through a combination of parking garage revenues and a $4.50 fee on airline tickets. The ticket fee is $3. Airports throughout the country charge such fees to raise money for capital expenditures.

Airport Director J.J. Hamilton said he was pleased to see Burlington so high on the list. The ranking reinforces the need for expansion and shows that the airport has not yet taken full advantage of the regional market, he said.

Even so, Burlington airport continues to defy national trends. By the end of the year, traffic at the airport is expected to be up 6 percent. Most airports are down 10 percent, Hamilton told the Burlington Air Service Task Force on Monday.

Changing times

Hamilton and Burlington Mayor Peter Clavelle addressed task force members to update them on expansion plans and security at the airport.

The task force is made up of representatives from the local travel industry, government, business and the state. The group last met in 1999 when officials were trying to figure out how to lure travelers to the airport from Manchester, N.H., and Albany, N.Y., where discount airlines were offering cheap fares.

That situation has changed, said task force member Ted Child owner of Child Travel Services in Colchester.

"The idea that people are going to drive to Manchester or Albany, it just doesn't happen anymore," Child said.

The picture changed when discount airline JetBlue arrived in Burlington in September 2000, boosting air travel by 30 percent. A second discount carrier, AirTran Airways, is considering landing in Burlington, Hamilton said.

Expanding the airport makes sense to Child. The airport continues to grow even though business travel is down, he noted. When business travel comes back, the airport could see even more growth, he said.

The airport has forecast growth of 3 percent per year.

Expansion plans call for an addition to the parking garage for 948 cars at a cost of $16 million, and an $8 million expansion of the north concourse of the terminal. The most recent expansion added on to the south concourse four years ago.

Contact Leslie Wright at 660-1841 or lwright@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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Charter jets' popularity soars: Convenience justifies high price

- By Leslie Wright --- Free Press Staff Writer --- Saturday, April 12, 2003

At a time when business travel is declining, the two on-demand charter airline companies at the Burlington International Airport are poised for growth.

Heritage Flight has seen steady demand for the company's fleet of air taxis. Trakair saw business surge 35 percent in 2002.

Both companies are adjusting for growth. Trakair is about to upgrade its aircraft. Heritage added a jet capable of trans-continental travel and is considering adding another.

What's happening at the Burlington airport is part of a national trend that charter operators have seen since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, said Clifton Stroud, spokesman for the National Air Transportation Association.

"We've seen a number of charter operators have anywhere from 15 to 30 or 40 percent increase in business since 9/11," Stroud said.

Now, more than a year later, convenience has eclipsed fear as the main reason business travelers seek out private charters, said Adam Barbor, pilot and owner of Trakair.

Commercial airlines in financial distress have cut flights, shifted schedules and stopped flying to some destinations. These cuts are making it harder, if not impossible, to get to some areas of the country quickly, especially from an out-of-the-way airport like Burlington.

A charter flight goes direct to where the customer wants to go and departs on the customer's schedule.

"I deal with businessmen and women. These people have a meeting they have to get to whether it's 10 o'clock in the morning or 2 o'clock in the afternoon," Barbor said. "They no longer feel they can book an airline flight and get there for that meeting. I can give them that assurance."

Barbor plans to upgrade from his eight-passenger Beechcraft King Air B200 turbo prop to a Piaggio P 180 Avanti, a faster turbo prop.

Heritage Flight added a nine-passenger Canadair Challenger jet to its fleet in November. Passengers wanted a faster, more comfortable jet, said Christopher Hill, president of Heritage.

This growth for charters is happening as business travel has been falling for four years, according to the Travel Industry Association. Business travel has fallen 10 percent since 2000. An association survey taken in late March found that 26 percent of business travelers plan to travel less or not at all this spring or summer compared to last year.

Paying up

To be sure, chartering a plane is expensive. A flight to Portland, Maine, on Heritage starts at $1,200 compared to $489 on Continental Airlines with seven days' notice. Landing fees vary from none at small airfields to $150 at major airports. Keeping the plane and pilot waiting for the return trip costs $40 to $50 an hour.

The savings comes if several people fly together. Charters charge by the aircraft, not per passenger. Time savings is another factor that often tips the scales in favor of chartering a plane.

The Continental flight to Portland requires flying through Albany, N.Y., and takes two hours and 15 minutes. The Heritage charter takes 45 minutes.

Charters are popular to destinations that are hard to reach from Burlington on commercial airlines. Jager Di Paola Kemp Design in Burlington flies Trakair to places like Buffalo, N.Y., and Memphis, Tenn., said Sascha Mayer, brand strategist.

"One of the great things about Trakair, specifically, is they have as many as eight seats and for the same flat rate we can take eight people to get face-to-face with the client," Mayer said.

Bob Stiller, president and chairman of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc., said some benefits of charter travel can't be expressed in dollars. Stiller, a long-time Heritage customer, bought the company in September.

In addition to the time savings, he has seen a positive effect on employees who bond during a private flight and come away from the trip energized.

"Originally I thought some of it was just rationalizations, but to experience it and see some of the results has been rewarding," Stiller said.
Contact Leslie Wright at 660-1841 or lwright@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com
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U.S. Airways suspends flights because of war

- The Associated Press --- Friday, March 28, 2003

ARLINGTON, Va. -- US Airways said Thursday it is suspending some transatlantic and domestic flights because of the war in Iraq, for about a 4 percent reduction in total departures.

"Passengers are not flying at levels they would have flown without the war," said spokesman David Castelveter. "We currently have more capacity than we have demand."

US Airways filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in August, citing continuing financial losses that the company attributed to a steep decline in air travel following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

While the carrier sought $900 million in federal loan guarantees and pay cuts from its union workers, it also increased its executives' cash compensation last year by 48 percent, according to a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The report shows that US Airways paid its top five executives a total of $4.6 million in cash compensation in 2002, up $1.5 million from the $3.1 million paid to the people who held the positions the year before.

Included in the 2002 total was $1.7 million in bonuses. The company paid no bonuses to its top five executives in 2001.

The carrier did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

US Airways reported a net loss of $1.6 billion in 2002 and $2.1 billion in 2001.

Receiving the highest payment last year was president and chief executive officer David N. Siegel, whose cash compensation totaled $1.4 million, including a bonus of $750,000. Siegel joined the company in March 2002.

Siegel and most of the other top executives also received awards of restricted stock and stock options last year. That stock now has no value.

The nation's seventh-largest airline negotiated salary concessions from its union workers late last year amounting to about $1 billion a year to cut costs as part of its financial restructuring. The company said it needed to cut expenses by $1.6 billion to restore profitability.

The company applied for federal loan guarantees last year under the Air Transportation Stabilization Act, passed by Congress after Sept. 11. US Airways said then it needed the funds to avoid filing for bankruptcy.

A federal judge approved US Airways' reorganization plan Tuesday. The company's emergence from bankruptcy hinges on federal approval of a settlement negotiated with its pilots' union over an underfunded pension plan. Regulators are expected to rule on the settlement this week.

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