New Falls terminal now lacks one thing: flights
Officials seek ways to attract flights
WHEATFIELD — A new $31.6 million terminal at Niagara Falls International Airport has just about everything a secondary air destination might need.
A jet bridge, with room for a second. The ability to process a Boeing 747 full of international passengers in an hour and a half. Free WiFi.
But officials are still grappling with how to attract one of the most important elements — new flights —as they prepare for the terminal’s first takeoff next month.
“We’ve built a lovely, lovely terminal here,” said Ed Warneck, president of Direct Air, the only company that flies scheduled passenger flights from the airport. “Now, we need traffic. Now, we have to pay the rent. Now, the tire hits the road.”
More than 50 public officials and business leaders met Friday morning in the terminal for more than two hours to discuss the strategy for drawing more business to the terminal once it opens Dec. 11.
The meeting, organized by State Sen. George D. Maziarz, R-Newfane, focused on how to energize the community behind the new terminal.
Warneck, whose airline is based in Myrtle Beach, S. C., and officials from the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority urged the community to step up its efforts to help sell the airport.
They hope a collective push could help build on the NFTA’s efforts to target discount and niche passenger airlines and charter services.
“You’re really talking about selling the region,” said William Vanecek, NFTA director of aviation. “The airport is just the conduit to get people here.”
For businesses, that could mean committing to flying from Niagara Falls. For the tourism industry, that
may mean shifting marketing resources to two destinations the airport currently services. For politicians, that will likely mean scrounging up dollars to offer incentives for new passenger flights or charters.
Construction is almost complete on the $42.5 million airport project, which also includes a new parking area and runway improvements. The new terminal will more than double the size of the airport, will upgrade security measures and give it the ability to process more than one flight at a time.
But prospects for additional business for the airport have not yet materialized, and officials stressed Friday that the uncertain economy has made that task even more difficult.
NFTA Chairman Henry M. Sloma said officials knew before they started the project they would have to build the new terminal before they could increase traffic.
“When we looked at the chicken or the egg — what would come first—we concluded very clearly we would never really have a good shot at significant traffic unless we had the terminal,” Sloma said. “This moment, in fact, was very premeditated. The first phase was to build it; the second phase is now to go out and market it.”
The airport has found success with Direct Air and has been able to more than double the airport’s all-time passenger numbers since Direct Air began flights to Niagara Falls nearly three years ago.
Warneck said Direct Air will soon announce a new destination from the airport — the company currently operates scheduled flights from Niagara Falls to Myrtle Beach and Punta Gorda, Fla. — but other airlines have not yet signed on.
The airport, which also serves as a reliever for Buffalo Niagara International Airport, does not stand on its own financially. Its operations are subsidized by money made at the Cheektowaga airport.
The NFTA has aggressively marketed the new Niagara Falls terminal to discount and niche airlines, charter flights and European air service.
Boosting inbound passenger traffic to the airport has been a challenge for the agency.
“One of the big questions we get when we talk with airlines is, ‘Who flies in and out of your airport?’ ” Vanecek said. “You know how difficult it is to sit in front of them and say, ´‘Well, right now we have nobody, but you can be the first.’ ”
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