Bradley International Airport’s top priorities over the next two years are to get the airport’s 14 airlines to create more daily non-stop flights to major cities currently not served and to reverse their recent policy of flying smaller planes, which has reduced Bradley’s annual passenger traffic over the last two years and raised fares.
Those goals highlight the airport’s “Strategic Plan 2008,” a 27-page document that looks at the next two years. It is what Bradley’s board of directors spent most of its latest monthly meeting refining.
Other items high on the plan’s agenda include making the land on Bradley’s property more attractive to potential commercial enterprises.
Another priority is making sure that the ongoing — some might say interminable — renovation of the western part of Terminal A is finished as scheduled, possibly as early as mid-2008. Opening that part of Terminal A will allow for new retail, fashion, and food and beverage outlets, possibly including a sit-down restaurant.
Bigger planes — with more seats than the 130 or so that planes out of Bradley currently fly — will attract more passengers and lower fares, Bradley Marketing and Route Development Director Kirin Jain said.
“The chances are really good, probably in the next eight to 12 months, Jain said.
One factor in Bradley’s favor is a new crop of planes that are bigger and lighter than older planes of the same size, so costs will be substantially less than with same-size older craft.
“We know the new fleets are coming in for the airlines,” she said.
Plain Economics
“There are a lot of orders for the new aircraft, which carry 230, or 240 passengers,” board Chairman L. Scott Frantz said. “Once they get bigger aircraft and I think they’ll do it, you reduce your prices and you pump the plane full of passengers, which is going to increase the profits you have now with smaller planes and higher prices.”
Bradley’s goal. Frantz said, is “to have 40 percent of the regional jets and regional airlines replace their larger airplanes by the end of next year.”
However, Jain acknowledged high oil prices do keep fares high. She also said that for the airlines to fly bigger planes, in general, they must change their policy to divert those bigger planes to flights abroad, which are more profitable.
“That’s where the higher use is,” Jain said.
Those flights were made possible by the recent agreement to allow any airline to fly to once restricted European airports.
Western Civilization
The top markets that deserve daily non-stop service, Jain said, are San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle, all of which have flights from Bradley that connect through various hubs, are the top markets that deserve non-stop service from the airport, Jain said.
“Currently, the numbers I have tell you that,” she said.
Flights to San Diego now attract 154 passengers each day each way. San Francisco has 124 passengers each day each way, and Seattle has 122 passengers each day each way. Those numbers come from an origin and destination survey done in March.
Jain said she is also trying to attract new domestic airlines to Bradley, including New York-based Jet Blue and Florida-based Air Tran and Spirit.
“We’re out there beating the bushes,” she said.
Another goal is to convince an airline to fly non-stop daily flights to the United Kingdom, Jain said, to go along with Northwest Airlines’ daily non-stops to Amsterdam, which debuted July 1. New non-stops could go to London, Scotland, or Ireland, but Jain wouldn’t specify what’s most likely.
The Amsterdam flights have surprised the airline with their success, Bradley’s Acting Administrator Stephen Korta said. That might encourage more non-stop European destinations.
“Northwest Airlines told us it has far exceeded their expectations in terms of passengers and in terms of return on their investment,” Korta said.
When the western part of Terminal A opens, Bradley revenues are expected to increase noticeably.
“There’s going to be a sit-down restaurant, a café, another travel accessory, a bookstore, and more retail, all part of the work that’s going on behind the construction walls, part of the renovation that will be completed in 2008,” Bradley spokesman John Wallace said.
