Small airports get ready for international service
Three facilities in the Northeast adding many amenities
In the past, the biggest and busiest U.S. airports had the market for international air service all to themselves.
Now, smaller airports, such as Bradley International, near Hartford, Conn.; T.F. Green Airport near Providence; and Stewart International Airport in New York’s Hudson Valley have snagged some direct flights to Europe and a potentially profitable slice of the trans-Atlantic air service pie.
Getting — and keeping — international service has spurred improvements at these small airports as they invest cash incentives, add amenities and spruce up facilities. BRADLEY BULKS UP When Aer Lingus began yearround service between Dublin and Bradley International Airport (BDL) in Windsor Locks, Conn., in September 2016, it had been eight years since the nation’s 54th-busiest airport could boast a direct international flight. (Northwest canceled non-stop flights between BDL and Amsterdam in 2008).
Bradley, which is about 110 miles from Boston’s Logan Airport and about 130 miles from New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport, will get its second international route June 17, when the fast-growing Norwegian Air, a European discount carrier, begins direct service to Edinburgh, Scotland.
To help persuade Aer Lingus, then Norwegian, to take a chance on adding service at Bradley, airport and local officials offered financial incentives, an increasingly common tool among smaller airports competing for service, and promised to beef up facilities inside the terminal.
The airport’s gates and ticket counters were already sized right and had common-use equipment at the ticket counters, said Kevin Dillon, Bradley Airport’s executive director, but to accommodate international customers, the airport added a branch of the payper-use Escape Lounge and a new restaurant — Phillips Seafood — which made sure to have Irish beers on the menu. Two Roads Brewing is about to open a tap room featuring Connecticutmade craft beers as well.
Bradley also added a duty-free shop for international travelers. PREPPING IN PROVIDENCE During June and July, Norwegian Air will kick off the first yearround European routes from T.F. Green (PVD) in Warwick, R.I., the country’s 64th-busiest airport in 2015.
PVD’s international service in- cludes TACV, which flies yearround to Cabo Verde, and Azores Airline, which flies seasonally from PVD to Ponta Delgada, Azores.
Service from PVD to Edinburgh, Scotland, will begin June 16; to Cork, Ireland, on July 1; to Belfast and Dublin on July 2; and to Shannon, Ireland, on July 3.
To secure the five new routes, PVD matched “a voluminous amount of route analysis,” airport spokeswoman Patti Goldstein said, “together with robust and outstanding community support,” which included “the same marketing funds that we offer to other airlines.”
A statement announcing the Norwegian service noted that the Federal Aviation Administration invested about $110 million in upgrading T.F. Green and expanding the airport’s runways to better accommodate international flights. Goldstein said the airport is expanding its international arrival facility, aiming to have enhancements in place for the kickoff of the Norwegian flights. SPRUCING UP STEWART INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT Stewart International Airport, about 70 miles north of New York City in New Windsor, will get its first scheduled international service with Norwegian Air’s daily flights to Edinburgh, starting June 15.
Flights from Stewart (SWF) to Dublin and Belfast will begin July 1, and flights to Shannon, Ireland, and Bergen, Norway, will kick off July 2. The frequency for each service will vary by season.
To get ready, Stewart International, ranked as the 206th-busiest U.S. airport in 2015, just finished razing a World War IIvintage hangar to make room for more overnight parking for aircraft. Inside the terminal, concessions and amenities are being upgraded, said Edmond Harrison, general manager of SWF, which is operated by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
“We’re getting currency exchange, duty-free shopping and a liquor license,” he said.
Two airport hotels (a Homewood Suites and a Courtyard by Marriott) are refurbishing facilities in advance of the new international travelers, Harrison said.