As They Lose Traffic, Once Bustling Airports Have Space to Rent
The fate of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport may be a portent for other airports serving smaller cities around the United States.
Once the main hub of Trans World Airlines, the airport offered as many as 475 departures a day. But now, there are just 256 daily departures, leaving half the concourses at the older of its two terminals vacant and the airport scrambling to find new, revenue-generating uses for the space.
Already, airports in Pittsburgh (a former hub for US Airways), Cincinnati (a much-downsized Delta Air Lines hub) and Oakland, Calif., have lost a significant amount of their business as airlines concentrate more of their flights on bigger-city airports.
As airlines continue to consolidate and cut back on their use of smaller, regional jets, more airports will be in the same difficult position — looking for new uses for unoccupied terminals, hangars and other specialized buildings.
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Industry experts said they expect the challenges faced by airports grappling with unused space will continue to grow. One factor, said William S. Swelbar, research engineer at the M.I.T. International Center for Air Transportation, is American carriers’ ongoing rejection of the 50-seat regional jet, as epitomized by Delta’s new pilot agreement, under which it will remove 218 of 343 of these planes from its fleet.
Delta, through its regional partners, is the largest operator of 50-seat aircraft. Airlines are increasingly abandoning these airplanes because of the high cost of jet fuel.
“A large number of airports in the United States today are totally dependent on the 50-seat airplane for access to the air transportation system,” Mr. Swelbar said. “There are going to be some smaller airports that will not be able to sustain service over the long-term. It is therefore absolutely time for them to think about alternative uses of their facilities.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/10/business/secondary-airports-losing-traffic-have-space-to-rent.html
Getting rid of the 50 seat jets should also reduce airport congestion and time waiting to take off or land. They are inefficient and their removal is a good thing.
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