Delta Airlines’ plan to merge with Northwest Airlines to create the largest air carrier in the world isn’t expected to create disruption at Bradley International Airport.
Delta Airlines is the airport’s leading carrier with a 22 percent market share of passengers served. Northwest is sixth with 9 percent.
Delta flies 24 daily non-stop flights out of Bradley to 10 destinations, including New York’s JFK, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, and five Florida cities: Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Orlando, Tampa and West Palm Beach.
Northwest flies 11 daily non-stop flights out of Bradley to four locations: Amsterdam, Detroit, Indianapolis and Minneapolis.
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No Overlap
“There is no overlap,” said Bradley spokesman John Wallace. “So it doesn’t look like on paper that there would be any duplication of destinations served.”
State Aviation Administrator Stephen Korta said he didn’t expect Bradley to lose any flight destinations because of the merger. “I can’t imagine why we would,” he said. “Both companies have done very well with their destinations at Bradley.”
Although several unions associated with the Delta-Northwest deal have announced their opposition, Airline consultant Darryl Jenkins said he believes the deal will eventually go through.
In news unrelated to the proposed merger, Bradley is preparing for several major construction projects, with an estimated total cost of $13.63 million, according to a public notice posted on the airport’s web site.
The funds will be raised from a passenger facility charge of $4.50 per passenger. Passengers pay that fee to the airlines, and the airlines, in turn, pass that fee back to the airport, said Airport Operations Manager Richard Rooney.
The more passengers that travel through the airport, he said, the faster the money can be collected to pay for the improvements.
The upcoming construction projects include the reconstruction of a main runway, runway 6-24, which is estimated to cost $3.9 million, as well as construction of a new taxiway off the end of runway 15, which could cost $695,000.
Sound insulation will also be done on houses near the airport and within a certain area to mitigate noise, the notice said, as part of a pilot project. That’s going to cost about $1.25 million.
The funds will also pay for the purchase of several rescue vehicles to replace old units and “maintain the operational readiness and safety of operations,” the notice said. The vehicles will cost about $1.47 million. The airport will also use funds to buy land to provide an alternate site for several species of rare and endangered birds that now nest at the airport. That’s going to cost about $2.1 million.
Every project paid for by passenger facility charges must approved by the Federal Aviation Administration and generally involves major airfield safety and construction items, Rooney said.
