Experts: Commercial Business Air Travel From Worcester A Longshot
Rick Saia
JetBlue officials disembark a plane at Worcester Regional Airport for the announcement that the airline plans to offer Florida flights starting in November.
There was no shortage of excitement, fanfare and political back pats earlier this month on the day JetBlue Airways announced it would start flying out of Worcester later this year, ending what will wind up being 20 months since Direct Air's bankruptcy effectively halted commercial passenger traffic in the city.
Within days, passengers had already ordered tickets for the two daily flights — one each to Orlando and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. — that begin Nov. 7, enough to make officials with the New York-based carrier happy about their newest market entry.
"We're definitely pleased with the initial interest," JetBlue spokeswoman Allison Steinberg said. "Of course, it's still very early in the game."
JetBlue's target market is clearly those who want to fly to leisure destinations, and data provided by the Massachusetts Port Authority (MassPort), which oversees Worcester Regional Airport, indicates that the leisure travel market is potentially more lucrative than business-related travel. It's also more predictable, according to industry watchers.
While Steinberg said JetBlue won't rule out potential business traffic in the future, at least two industry experts indicated it would be difficult to capture that kind of business in Central Massachusetts, based largely on economics.
Seth Kaplan, an analyst and managing partner for Airline Weekly, an industry publication based in Fort Lauderdale, said "What's happened (in Worcester) is great, but people shouldn't be disappointed if this is all they get for a while."
That means anyone who wants to fly for business on a commercial passenger jet must still check the schedules at Boston Logan International Airport, T.F. Green in Rhode Island, Manchester, N.H., or Bradley International in Connecticut, and continue to drive — or be driven — at least an hour to catch a flight.
Business Travel: All About Options
Kaplan, as well as Robert Mann, an industry analyst in Port Washington, N.Y., said the distinction between the leisure and business air-travel markets comes down to predictability and availability. With leisure travelers, you can get away with limited frequency of flights, Mann said, but with the business market, there needs to be more frequent travel.
Business travelers need more options, especially if a meeting in, say, New York City runs late, forcing them to reschedule to a later flight out the same day, the two analysts indicated, while vacationers are usually fine with planning their trip around available flights.
Kaplan said if JetBlue "can't get that critical mass" of two or three flights a day year-round to fill planes and accommodate business travelers, then the value isn't there. "It would probably be tough" for the carrier, he said.
"If you're not doing something at least twice a day for business travel, the value is not there for corporations," Kaplan said.
Elaine Osgood, founder and president of Atlas Travel in Milford, which helps businesses manage their travel functions, agrees that business travelers need flexibility, especially the convenience of flying out of town early in the morning and returning in the evening. Unless it's convenient for them to fly out of Worcester, she said, there are "not a lot of options for them" in the city. Options can also be important if out-of-town meetings are canceled or run late.
"Folks don't want to be hanging around airports," she said.
The Rectrix Alternative
MassPort spokesman Richard Walsh said that, in general, an airline often starts building its markets with leisure travelers and looks to grow from there. For now, business travel out of Worcester will be limited to private charter service provided by Bedford-based Rectrix Aviation, which will also provide aircraft management and maintenance services after it completes construction on their facility at Worcester Regional Airport. Walsh said Rectrix is scheduled to break ground late this spring or early summer.
"They determined that there is enough of a market to support their activity" in Worcester, Walsh said.
JetBlue has found a growing market in Massachusetts. It flies one of every five daily flights out of Logan, accounting for one-quarter of the airport's passengers last year, according to MassPort. And, it recently announced its 49th destination from Logan with non-stop service to Houston starting in July.
As for the potential for growing its new Worcester market, the 80th for JetBlue, it depends on the support the airline can get for its initial flights, said Steinberg, the JetBlue spokeswoman. If that doesn't take the form of more flights, Steinberg said, it could mean larger aircraft, whether to accommodate business travelers or more leisure fliers. The initial service in November will be on 100-seat Embraer 190 planes.
The JetBlue announcement "is a big win for the Worcester area," said Mann, the analyst. "And if the region supports it, you can … put a pin in the map" and go from there.
Noting the Worcester airport's challenges in generating traffic in recent years, "JetBlue is clearly taking a risk here," Mann said, despite what he called a recent history of being risk averse.
But at the same time, "I applaud them for giving it a shot," he said.
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