HPN Expansion

[Guest snowman]

It's about time for this to happen (From Lohud.com)....http://lohud.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071014/NEWS02/710140346

Westchester Airport expansion starts to take off

By CAREN HALBFINGER

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: October 14, 2007)

With more low-cost flights than ever before to Florida destinations, Westchester County Airport has morphed in the past 18 months from a tranquil departure point for Cincinnati-bound software salesmen to a bustling place where sunshine-seeking senior citizens, duffel-toting students and families with loads of luggage jockey for space.

The airport's airline passenger count is expected to soar to 1.65 million by the end of this year, up nearly 66 percent from 2006.

To keep all those travelers moving, airport manager Peter Scherrer plans to hire 60 people this year and 42 more in 2008. They will handle luggage, clean and fuel aircraft, and check in passengers, bringing the airport staff from 148 last year to 250 next year.

The airport also plans to buy equipment and renovate some back-office and public spaces, spending about $4.1 million for people, construction and equipment.

"I'm just shifting stuff around to survive here," Scherrer said. "I just want passengers to say it's small, it's modest - but it's functional."

Increased airport revenues from such items as fueling, landing, concessions and passenger fees will pay for the changes.

While the airport expects to handle as many airline passengers next year as it will this year, this is probably the highest-flying the airport can go.

Local ambivalence about the airport, close to multimillion-dollar estates and pricey homes, led to a longstanding terminal-capacity agreement to limit growth. The agreement between the airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration and Westchester County, which owns the airport, caps the number of arriving or departing passengers at 240 per half-hour on a maximum of four planes.

While business travelers and vacationers love its proximity, neighbors find aircraft noise a nuisance and worry about air and water pollution to the nearby Kensico Reservoir.

To maintain the quality of life, Westchester has gone on record opposing any growth beyond that allowed in the agreement. From 2006 to 2007, airline departures are expected to increase by about 9.4 percent, to 41,424.

What some residents forget is that airline flights are only about 25 percent of the total flights at this airport. The majority of flights are by private, corporate or general aviation aircraft.

With the popularity of new flights to Orlando, West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the airlines have just about maxxed out the number of travelers they can carry during the most popular times of the day. The number of daily flights has grown from 68 in July 2006 to 79 a year later.

JetBlue typically carries 150 passengers inbound and outbound, and AirTran averages about 80 to 90 in both directions, Scherrer said. So when those two airlines share a half-hour time slot, they reach the cap with one flight each.

"We're kind of hitting our cap," Scherrer said. "We have slots open at 10 p.m., but you won't get a lot of people who want to fly then."

To accommodate all these extra passengers in the same 42,000-square-foot passenger terminal, airport management has spent about $875,000 on new equipment, knocked down walls and reconfigured existing space. The changes are a work in progress. Some wires are exposed, and some walls and floors are still bare in public places.

Behind the scenes, sleek new open workstations have replaced private offices. And while the employee break room is bare and grim, it is in line for a face-lift, too, Sherrer said.

The airport is constrained both by the demand from so many extra travelers and by the use of about 3,000 square feet of space for the Transportation Security Administration.

The security checkpoint now bulges out into the lobby, taking over most of the entry. It offers three lanes, up from two, for shorter waits. A cordoned-off space near the baggage claim is set up for spillover queues of departing travelers. By the check-in counters, the airport now boasts three large explosive-detection machines that scan luggage.

These are some of the changes the airport has already made:

- more than doubled the number of departure lounge seats, to 244.

- replaced temporary folding chairs with sleek new seats.

- built a private screening area to avoid commandeering a restroom.

- added 30 second-floor seats, so passengers won't have to sprawl on the floor.

- painted departure lounge accent walls cayenne or mustard to brighten the space.

- replaced airline information boards with flat-screen displays.

- reconfigured and reopened curbside check-in, which had closed after the Sept. 11 attacks.

- replaced carpeting, moved an airline office to enlarge the departure lounge.

Despite all these changes, there are still some unpleasant surprises for travelers. Lynn McKamey, who flew in Monday from Corpus Christi, Texas, was surprised that she had to get off her flight by climbing down a set of stairs onto the tarmac.

"I think the airport's a disaster," she said. "There's no jetway, and I'm too old to go up and down the steps with all my luggage."

Although the airport does have two jetways, some of the larger aircraft now using the airport have doors that are too high off the ground to work with the jetways, Scherrer said.

Here are some of the changes to come next year:

- add a snack bar to the departure lounge by knocking down some walls and moving a bathroom.

- renovate the existing bathrooms.

- improve child safety to second- and third-floor railings by raising them and replacing wire and mesh with glass.

- add more seats and work tables to the second and third floors.

- construct a canopy and add a garage door to enlarge the baggage-sorting area.

Still to come this year, the airport will spend about $4.1 million. Most of it will go for equipment, but this year's extra hires also will be covered.

Airport purchases will include 16 wheelchairs, 15 mobile radios, two aircraft de-icers and ground power units, lavatory carts, six baggage carts, two tractors, extra chairs, a pickup truck, a passenger lift for disabled travelers, a cleaning-crew van and extra desks and workstations, a mobile aircraft belt loader, and a radio base station.

Like many travelers who are now booking flights from Westchester, Ava Konwiser of New Rochelle chose the airport because of its convenient location, but then found herself annoyed by some inconveniences once she got there.

As is often the case, the 1,100-space garage was full and she was one of about 300 travelers who had to park in an overflow lot and take a shuttle bus to the terminal.

"I was shocked by how crowded it is," said Konwiser, a school nurse in Port Chester. "There's not enough parking. Checking in wasn't a problem, but there was hardly anyplace to sit. People were standing all over, and the plane was totally filled."

Still, she wasn't annoyed enough to turn her back on the airport and travel from La Guardia Airport instead, saying she would try to fly from Westchester whenever she could.

"Now, at least people aren't treated like cattle," Scherrer said. "Any little square footage we're trying to utilize as best we can without adding any extra space. At least if you're small, you can still look good."

Sorry for the spacing...i can not find out how to undo that..

Edited October 14, 2007 by snowman