tfred

i flew out of here for the first time today. I had to get to columbus ohio in a pinch and the airfares were half of EWR or LGA on DL. It was only $500 here vs 1000. DL airfares to ohio in general are outrageous these days

somebody has to be subsidizing this big time - there are more employees than pax. I was the first and the only person in security. a quick look at the schedule for DL has a few flights to DTW on various days. it actually isnt half bad but very limited services - i would hate to be stuck here for any reason. The DL agent was wearing a US jacket

they said that jetblue is the big draw to MCO and FLL. US flies a few flights a day as well

i would come here again as it is as close to my house as EWR but one misconnect and your are stuck wherever you are

mikehillwig

Maybe not necessarily a subsidy. Airfares are all about supply and demand. More people want to fly into LGA/JFK/EWR than SWF. Thus, lower demand and lower prices.

Spyro

Strange about those airfares. When I was a cadet at West Point (which is about 10 miles away from SWF, by far the closest airport) I usually found that EWR/JFK/LGA or even HPN were cheaper, plus much nicer airport that were served with bigger planes. The times I did fly SWF were direct to ATL, but they discontinued that route not long after I graduated and now only serve DTW. I usually had to pay a lot more to fly out of SWF.

In 2008 when I was a freshman Jet Blue did not serve SWF. They added one FLL flight in 2009 and then more as time went on.

Again when I was a freshman I remember looking at the schedule and SWF was beefed up with plenty of mainline. US had two flights to PHL, NW had three to DTW, DL had three to ATL, and I think CO had two CLE flights. There were no low cost carriers until Allegiant and Jet Blue entered.

The airport itself is kind of cool. It's in the middle of a bunch of old Air Force base government buildings. The New York Air Guard flies C-5's from there and those are really fun to watch take off, except if you were waiting to take off after. The vorticies produced would usually require a small jet to wait about two minutes, and the Cessna 182 that we flew as part of my academic major would require at least five minutes!

RobtheAggie

I love SWF for the convenience of anything on the west side of the Hudson River. HPN for the east side, SWF for the west. Most of my travel to the NYC area is north of the city and these two airports work great.

HPN is fun to see all of the huge houses in Westchester County, expecially when landing from the south on 34.

Last time I landed at SWF I do not think that we used brakes at all. It was a CRJ from DTW and we landed at the end of runway 9 and just kept rolling until we slowed down.

BusTrav8yrs

Too many CRJ200's and Toll on Bridge to work for me.

mother-

Very strange!

SWF was semi-usefull for a few years back in the day, but prices shot up and connections got stupid after the demise of CVG. Nowadays they usually GOUGE you to fly out of it something fierce!

(I've honestly gotten quoted $3700 for a domestic multi-stop flight that I eventually paid $400 for a NS out of NY for, and none of the flights was particularly full.)

If they charged the same prices for SWF as for even HPN it would be quite busy...

Pharaoh

They never taught you that with a proper technique one could cut that to a more normal/usual one minute?

Spyro

Yes I did learn two good techniques when I was getting my private license for avoiding wake from other planes. I was still a cadet at the time we were flying with our instructor, an Army aviator, as part of our classwork and not for hours. We always took off from 34 because it was closet to our hangar (on the airport diagram its the building labeled as "Army"). If the C-5's used 9/27 (usually down 9) tower usually to us to hold short for about five minutes. The C-5's usually rotated just before the two runways intersected. It wasn't a big deal because we were never in a hurry to take off.

heathe

In the 90s SWF was served by US, DL, AA, United--and even TWA flew down to JFK! Now it is down to the Jetblue flights to FLL and MCO, the US flights to Philly and DL's 3 flights to DTW. And the end of day return from DTW is tough: you fly in late, arriving after 11:00 p.m.

The authoritative "they"--as in "They said"-- said that incorporating SWF into the Port Authority system would bring in more flights and better connections; they said that adding the 4 lane entrance road would make the airport more appealing and able to handle more people. But it hasn't happened.

And usually the flights--except JetBlue's--are more expensive than ALB or EWR or even HPN.

mother-

When the flights are stupidly more expensive and the connections more difficult, why would people use the airport? That's not on the PANYNJ or the pol's really...

Spyro

It was really handy for me when I lived ten miles away from SWF. Orange County and the surrounding area of Poughkeepsie, Beacon, Middletown, and Central Valley has a large population. Many of those people would rather use SWF if they can afford it, which is why lost cost carriers headed to leisure destinations have started to flourish there while mainline carriers who have started to charge more money have dwindled. SWF was not always extremely expensive on mainline flights, but now it is for reasons that I'm not entirely sure of but can only guess.

The Port Authority really had hopes that SWF would grow and become more like HPN, but the problem is that HPN is located very conveniently in the very wealthy Westchester County which also has a large population. HPN would have even more commercial flights if not for noise restrictions and competition with general aviation flights.

In my humble opinion, I wouldn't be surprised if SWF lost all mainline service in the next few years and only had airlines like Allegiant, Southwest (someday) and Jet Blue. DL's DTW and US's PHL flights are just getting more expensive each time I look at them. I still travel up there once a year to visit people and it's absolutely insane to fly into SWF compared to NYC area airports.

mother-

I agree, it used to be reasonable and worthwhile. However it's obscenely expensive and not only are most of the flights brutally early and late, but you end up with really long connections.

There is a large population of people in Rockland/Orange/Dutchess/Ulster counties that would gladly use SWF. Even considering the rich/dense population of Westchester- SWF is likely an easier/quicker ride than any of the NYC airports after traffic is factored in...

As is though, you might as well drive to NYC and catch a direct flight if you're getting up that early, get there 6+ hours earlier, and save yourself money as well!

tfred

I have to agree with mother, heathe and spyroafter after my return to swf from Dtw. the return was delayed an hour so we didn't arrive until after midnight. If that plane went mx we would have been screwed. They did switch a/c, offer snack in the boarding area before departure.

I had looked at swf in the past but airfares were always high. This one tripit was lower than the others for some reason. Also the a/c was full with a collection of very infrequent fliers (mostly) but a reasonable amount of diamonds and plats

Considering the very early/late schedule dl has there I am not so sure I would use it regularly

ND76

There's just not a big market for air travel within 25 miles of SWF.

I always thought that the NYC metropolitan area needed a 21st century international airport, with airfield layout and terminals on the order of ATL, DTW, DFW, DEN. The only way this could be accomplished would be the redevelopment of places like Stewart or McGuire AFB in NJ and transportation innovations like high frequency high speed rail and/or dedicated Busways to these airports. Also, having the Port Authority as the owner of SWF is a recipe for stunting its growth, as the PA has much bigger fish to fry at JFK, LGA and EWR.

I thought the developments in the London airports are interesting, with BAA selling Gatwick to a competing airport operator. This actually increases competition, as the various airport operators are vying to bring in new airlines and new services in order to bring in new passengers to their facilities. Here in the DC area there is a modicum of competition, as the Maryland state aviation administration, the owner of BWI, and its partner BAA America (the manager of the terminal building), compete with the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the owner of DCA and IAD, for airlines and passengers.

Tower18

The other advantage HPN has over SWF is loooooots of traffic from just across the street in CT. HPN is the closest airport for the majority of Fairfield County, with the exception of the Danbury area that might technically be closer to SWF. But BDL is pretty far from SW Connecticut, and many don't want to bother with driving to LGA and paying for parking.