MacArthur wooing more nonstop flights

Long Island MacArthur Airport officials say they will focus their efforts to lure more travelers by wooing airlines offering nonstop service to popular destinations including Dallas, Atlanta and Los Angeles, following the recommendations of a study commissioned by the airport.

The airport could more than double its annual passengers to 4.4 million if it offers nonstop flights to the top 25 destinations of New York area travelers, the study found.

MacArthur currently serves nearly 2 million passengers per year and offers nonstop flights to seven of Long Islanders' top 10 destinations, five in Florida.

The $158,000 study - done by two aviation consultants and funded primarily by grants - analyzed travel patterns of people from Suffolk County and the eastern half of Nassau. It recommended targeting new airlines including JetBlue, American, Continental and Spirit, which briefly offered service at MacArthur in 2008 before pulling out because of a spike in fuel prices.

Airport officials called the new data a powerful tool for positioning MacArthur as a "no-hassle" alternative to congested Kennedy and LaGuardia airports - a message the Ronkonkoma airport has been promoting in a $300,000 marketing campaign. The airport is owned and operated by Islip Town.

"It will allow us to make a better case, a more specific case, to the airlines," Islip Supervisor Phil Nolan said.

Bayside-based airline industry consultant Julius Maldutis said creation of new routes will depend on the economy.

"If fuel prices go up, it's very questionable that . . . [new airlines] would get into MacArthur," he said. However, MacArthur has avoided the trend of airlines contracting at smaller airports, he said, because its primary tenant, Southwest, is a "growth airline."

USAirways Express is the only other airline now offering scheduled service at MacArthur.

A spokeswoman for JetBlue, which operates a terminal at Kennedy, said her company, too, has seen recent growth. "We are considering nearly all major airports in the northeast, including ISP," Allison Steinberg wrote in an e-mail, using the airport code for MacArthur.

MacArthur officials acknowledge airlines are unlikely to expand to Long Island before the economy rebounds, but said they want to position themselves for that moment.

Even without adding new destinations, the airport is expected to grow. The FAA in 2008 projected that with no service changes, MacArthur's annual customer base would grow to 3.4 million by 2025, the MacArthur study said.

Airport Commissioner Teresa Rizzuto said MacArthur has the capacity right now to handle those additional passengers and flights, but nevertheless is planning to lengthen its taxiways and rebuild the roadway in front of the terminal, with a new canopy for passengers waiting for pickup.

"When they're ready to come, we're ready to accept them," Rizzuto said of prospective new airlines.

Airport officials have experienced a series of disappointments in the past few years. The eye-blink presence of Spirit followed the departure of Delta Air Lines. Last year US Airways and Delta dropped a plan that would have established shuttle service between MacArthur and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.

The study found that 26 percent of travelers living in Suffolk and eastern Nassau use MacArthur, 29 percent fly from LaGuardia, and 37 percent choose Kennedy.

Those findings, Rizzuto said, represent an opportunity.

"We're going to go out and sell this place," she said.