🔒Worcester Regional Airport boosts incentive program to attract more airlines, expand destinations

In an effort to attract more airlines to serve local travelers, Worcester Regional Airport will now offer expanded incentives and benefits to carriers through its revamped air service incentives program. Air service incentive programs are widely used by airports to draw new airlines and broaden travel destinations by providing up to millions in incentives, including maintenance support, subsidies, and waived fees. ORH’s original incentive program offered up to $150,000 in marketing funds in addition to waiving a number of fees, including landing, parking, and facility rent fees, for two years.

“With the cost of doing business going up, we saw an opportunity to propose to the Massport board this morning, who ultimately approved an increase to the program,” ORH Director Andrew Davis said to WBJ. Massachusetts Port Authority, the operator of ORH commonly known as Massport, approved the airport’s plan to grow its incentive program on Thursday—a plan submitted by Massport's Route Development Department. The new, enhanced program splits the incentive offerings into two tiers depending on the frequency of flights provided. The first tier, designated for air carriers providing services at least twice a week, offers up to $200,000 in marketing support. The second tier, for carriers providing services at least five times a week, offers up to $250,000 in marketing support. Both tiers offer two years of fees waived, the maximum allowed under the Federal Aviation Administration. ORH currently offers services to Philadelphia, New York, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Fort Myers via American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and JetBlue Airways. ORH doesn’t have any specific airlines it's aiming to attract, but the airport does want the incentive program to accommodate all service models, said Davis. “We want to make sure these incentive programs are designed to attract not just the ultra low-cost carriers, but the legacy carriers and the other low-cost carriers,” Davis said. Spirit Airlines and Breeze Airways are examples of ultra low-cost carriers, while low cost carriers include JetBlue and Southwest Airlines. Legacy airlines are those like American Airlines, Delta, and United Airlines. While ORH hasn’t made plans yet to expand its destination offerings, Davis said high demand markets include Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta. Davis also intends to partner with the community to provide further incentives, including those the airport can’t provide under FAA standards, such as job and revenue guarantees. “There's no reason why there can be incentive programs from businesses, chambers of commerce, the state travel and tourism entities, that can also make some incentive programs out there,” said Davis. “It basically takes a village to make the airport more attractive.” Mica Kanner-Mascolo is a staff writer at Worcester Business Journal, who primarily covers the healthcare and diversity, equity, and inclusion industries.