Pushing MacArthur to fly higher

The hassle-free airport, the easier-than-JFK-LaGuardia-or-Newark way to fly, has some potent new friends. But Long Island MacArthur Airport needs more than the helpful attention of two key business leaders to reach its full potential.

As their first in a series of partnerships on regional issues, the Long Island Association and the Association for a Better Long Island are setting out to promote MacArthur to their members and to the Island.

That's commendable. The airport is an economic driver for the region, especially the Town of Islip, which operates it. It's also a key link in the transportation network that we must improve to make Long Island's economy grow. But in addition to its strengths, the airport faces tough challenges.

Its greatest asset is its convenience. It's easier to get there from Suffolk and a large swath of Nassau than it is to get to the city airports. And once they get to MacArthur, travelers encounter far fewer flight delays than at the major airports, now choking on congestion. So the airport has been pushing its virtues in ads: "We make flying a breeze" and "When you land at MacArthur, you're almost home."

Given that convenience, Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan and the airport's commissioner, Teresa Rizzuto, are convinced that MacArthur should dominate from mid-Nassau to eastern Suffolk, an area where 1.7 million people live. But too many of those people are choosing the city airports because of the routes they can get there, but not at MacArthur.

The airport has about 30 takeoffs and landings a day, and it could easily accommodate another 40 or 50. But getting carriers to add additional routes, and attracting more carriers, in addition to Southwest Airlines and US Airways Express, isn't easy.

Travelers love the convenience, but airlines are more focused on the cold, hard market numbers. No matter how persuasively and energetically Rizzuto presents MacArthur's case at airline industry gatherings, new carriers won't come until they see more volume at the airport. But travelers won't use it in big enough numbers until they see more carriers serving more destinations from Islip. It's a classic chicken-and-egg dilemma.

Convenience isn't enough

So it's useful that the LIA and ABLI plan to encourage their members to fly out of MacArthur. But the reality is that their members, like all business people, want more than convenience. They want to be able to get to the cities where their business takes them, without an annoying change of planes. At this moment, MacArthur doesn't offer enough of that.

What to do? Both Kevin Law of LIA and Desmond Ryan of ABLI raised the question of whether the airport could make more progress if the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the city airports, were also running MacArthur.

But the Port Authority has already placed its bets on Stewart International Airport in the Hudson Valley. It's investing millions of dollars there to make Stewart a reliever airport and divert millions of travelers from the overcrowded city airports. It doesn't see MacArthur the same way.

Besides, ownership by a large entity doesn't always work, as a regional airport 35 miles from Los Angeles - like MacArthur, a less-hassle alternative - is finding. LA/Ontario International Airport used to be operated by the City of Ontario. Then it became part of Los Angeles World Airports, which oversaw airlines' investment of nearly $300 million in two new terminals at Ontario. But its volume of travelers has recently dropped sharply under the larger agency, and the city wants to take back control.

So the most realistic bet is that Islip will continue operating MacArthur. The airport puts stress on town roads, but brings benefits. The town has issued 200 new commercial building permits near the airport in recent years, which will create more property tax revenue. But to enhance MacArthur's value as a regional transportation asset, Islip and business leaders will have to work hard.

Islip and the Long Island Rail Road should keep working on connecting the terminal to the Ronkonkoma station, on the opposite side of the airport from the terminal. The LIRR has helped by advertising MacArthur at Penn Station and providing a ticket package that includes a shuttle from the train station to the airport. Investment in infrastructure for a more direct station-terminal link won't happen until higher volume at the airport justifies it. And we need a double track to Ronkonkoma to make that link work well for travel in both directions.

Providing more choices - such as direct flights to Washington, Albany and Boston - is vital for the airport and the region. The interest by the LIA and ABLI is a start, but bringing MacArthur to its full potential won't be hassle-free. It will take patience.

So business leaders need to keep at it, and work on the FAA to push the Port Authority to keep MacArthur in mind as part of any solution to congestion at city airports. Only with the help of perseverance and energy can MacArthur really soar. hN