Massport Looks Forward To Full Control Of WRA
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RUNWAYS: Direct Air is the lone commercial carrier operating at Worcester Regional Airport. Local officials say transfer of the airport to Massport is “imminent.â€
With the city’s sale of the Worcester Regional Airport to the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) imminent, officials with the transportation facilities developer and manager are already thinking of ways to make the WRA busier.
Once the transaction is closed, Massport will no longer be just the airport’s operator, it’ll own the facility. Andrew Davis, the airport’s director, said recently that unlike the city, Massport will be able to make capital improvements.
“The city has been really challenged,” Davis said. Under city ownership, the 1,300-acre, two-runway airport has run an annual operating deficit of about $3 million, of which the city pays about 20 percent. Massport covers the rest.
The load consumed nearly all the attention the city could afford the airport. Massport, which runs Logan International Airport, will have a different focus.
“Whatever we can do to enhance the experience in terms of ease of access, I’m all for it,” Davis said.
Davis acknowledged that getting to Worcester Airport is a serious challenge when compared to other regional airports such as Bradley International Airport in Connecticut, T.F. Green International Airport in Rhode Island and Manchester Boston Regional Airport in New Hampshire.
Unlike those airports, Worcester Regional is miles west of the nearest interstate highway, Interstate 290, and is surrounded by residential neighborhoods. And, Davis, noted, “The city is challenged with congestion and access from the east to the west side of the city.”
Instrumental Navigation
A dedicated access road to the airport is thought by many to be a viable option for getting to and from the terminal while avoiding the hassle of city traffic.
According to aspects of the transaction between the city and Massport laid out recently by City Manager Michael O’Brien, the construction of an access road is not part of the negotiations, but “a reasonable level of future community oversight” of the airport is.
The transfer of the airport to Massport is expected to close before the June 30 end of the fiscal year. City officials said it could happen any day.
Massport “previously said it wouldn’t buy it without the access road,” said Worcester attorney Demitrios Moschos, chairman of the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and former assistant city manager.
But since last year, when the current negotiations began, the priority has simply been to take the airport off the city’s hands.
Judging by parameters of the deal outlined by O’Brien, the arrangement seems to fall in line with statements made by Massport slightly more than a year ago.
Then, during a panel discussion on transportation in Central Massachusetts, Ed Freni, Massport’s director of aviation, said any profits gained by the city in the sale of the airport would go directly back to the airport’s operating budget. The Federal Aviation Administration, which has jurisdiction over Worcester Regional, does not allow airport revenue to be put toward any non-airport use.
O’Brien noted that the transaction will not be a straight real estate deal. Instead, the deal will compensate the city for its costs associated with the airport, including debt service, salaries, insurance, retiree costs, repairs and city grant shares.
It also allows for settlement of future liabilities like retiree costs and loan payments that will be paid down after the transaction.
The city will also keep the Airport Industrial Park, which is included in the airport’s 1,300 acres, and the tax revenue associated with it.
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