WORCESTER - Seeking "to reestablish the momentum" of Worcester Regional Airport, Massport and the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce are surveying residents about the future of air travel in Central Mass.
"We recognize this is a difficult and challenging time for the aviation industry across the globe, but it doesn't mean we should just sit back," said Chamber President and CEO Timothy P. Murray in an interview Wednesday. The chamber is spearheading the survey effort with hopes to collect 1,000 responses by the end of October.
"We still want to stay engaged and position the airport so that when things return to normal we can not only bring back the existing airlines and flights, but also make the case to other airlines that Worcester is a place to come," Murray continued.
Worcester Regional Airport, known by the call letters ORH, was growing prior to COVID-19.
In the last decade, the airport had gone from having no commercial carriers to hosting three airlines - Delta, American Airlines, and JetBlue - which offered trips to Fort Lauderdale and Orlando, Florida; Detroit; Philadelphia; and New York City. Massport, which owns and operates the airport, has also publicly stated that other airlines were interested in coming to the airport.
But COVID-19 hammered the airline industry.
On April 1, only 36,023 travelers were recorded by the Transportation Security Administration while 2,151,626 people flew on that day a year earlier. Congress issued a $25 billion bailout for the passenger airline industry in March and rumors of a second bailout continue to swirl as passenger counts have not fully rebounded. On Tuesday, for instance, there were 704,075 passengers in the sky while a year ago there were 1,943,379, according to the TSA.
Worcester was not immune.
In June, JetBlue and American were approved to suspend flights from the airport.
And Delta said late Wednesday that it was suspending service from ORH in October
"This move is not unexpected, as every major airline has had to make tough decisions at a time when demand for flying and travel is so low," Massport spokesperson Jennifer Mehigan said Wednesday. "We continue to have conversations with our airline partners and look forward to commercial service returning to Worcester in the near future."
JetBlue and American did not respond to inquiries about their future at ORH. A Massport spokesperson said the suspensions were not specific with a time frame of when service might resume. JetBlue, however, is advertising tickets for November 18 on Travelocity.
Murray hopes the airport can bounce back.
He noted that the airport in the last decade had a $97 million economic impact on Central Mass. and that Bloomberg recently ranked Worcester as one of the cities most likely to quickly recover from the pandemic.
Murray also suggested that Worcester Regional Airport might have an advantage amid the pandemic.
"As we rethink the customer experience, as concerns of COVID-19 impact traveling in this environment, ORH is a very convenient, user-friendly airport that is centrally located," Murray said. "You're not dealing with huge crowds of people ... when people use Worcester Airport they have a great experience."
Exactly what that experience looks like, however, may be up to survey respondents.
"We can use this information with existing airlines as well as with new airlines," Murray said. It's information that will be helpful and strengthen the Central Mass. community with the growth of the airport."
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