This article from NYTimes.com has been sent to you by psa188@xxxxxxxxx /-------------------- advertisement -----------------------\ Explore more of Starbucks at Starbucks.com. http://www.starbucks.com/default.asp?ci=1015 \----------------------------------------------------------/ Smaller U.S. Airports Are Increasingly Popular May 13, 2003 By MARK A. STEIN There are many ways to size up the worst or at least the most irritating airports in the country. Some people count the number of delayed flights, others gauge the difficulties of getting in and out, and some critique the amenities. Doctors have even ranked the busiest airports based on the unhealthiness of the food served in them. However the list is drawn up, some candidates always seem to make it. Hartsfield in Atlanta and O'Hare in Chicago; Logan in Boston; La Guardia and Kennedy in New York; LAX in Los Angeles; and the aptly coded MIA in Miami. Now, a growing number of business travelers are doing more than making a mental tally of the most annoying airports. They are shunning them and flying out of regional airports instead, thereby not only sparing themselves a lot of aggravation but saving money to boot. Low-cost airlines like Southwest prefer these smaller fields precisely because they are less congested, and because they charge lower landing fees. "It's a lot easier for me to fly out of White Plains than to fight getting out of La Guardia," said Jessica L. Henry, referring to the Westchester County Airport in the suburbs north of New York City. "It cuts two hours from the whole process." Ms. Henry is a college recruiter for News America Marketing Inc., an advertising company based in Manhattan, and said she spent a third of her time on the road. Ross Leonard, the director of architecture and design marketing for C&A Floorcoverings, a carpet maker in Dalton, Ga., said that he preferred driving to Tennessee and flying out of the Chattanooga airport to battling his way through Atlanta's vast Hartsfield International. "The security lines at Hartsfield are just dispiriting," he said. The shift of business travel to regional airports is illustrated by Federal Aviation Administration statistics. They show big gains in passenger traffic at airports just outside some major urban areas from 1996 to 2001 - the latest year for which statistics are available - while the traffic at primary airports grew little or actually shrank. The gains at these suburban airports came even as the weak economy led many airlines to cut service to midsize and small cities. "In an effort to stem losses, airlines have reduced service in the smallest communities by 19 percent in the past five years," Kenneth M. Mead, the inspector general of the Department of Transportation, testified before a Senate subcommittee earlier this month. While passenger volume at Logan International fell 4 percent in that period, to 11.7 million boardings in 2001, for example, traffic at Manchester Airport 50 miles northwest in New Hampshire more than tripled, to 1.6 million boardings, and the number of passengers using T. F. Green Airport about 40 miles southwest in Providence, R.I., more than doubled, to 2.7 million boardings. Boston officials contributed to the trend by encouraging travelers to use regional airports while a downtown highway reconstruction project hampered automobile access to Logan. In southern Florida, traffic at Miami International fell 8.5 percent in those five years, to 14.9 million boardings, while the number of passengers at nearby Fort Lauderdale Airport jumped 45 percent, to 8 million boardings. In Southern California, traffic at Long Beach Airport increased by almost one-third, to 297,000 boardings, while Los Angeles International gained 2.5 percent, to 29.3 million. At the other end of the state, traffic at San Jose International expanded 21 percent, to 5.9 million boardings; Oakland International added 17 percent more passengers, rising to 5.5 million; and San Francisco International dropped 11 percent, to 16.4 million boardings, largely as a result of the dot-com bust. The San Francisco airport is also in the midst of a big construction project, but travelers who navigate it now have at least one reason to celebrate. Last year, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit group that promotes preventive medicine and good nutrition, rated the food in the airport's restaurants the healthiest in the nation. (The Detroit airport placed last.) Some of the most striking growth at regional airports has been near New York City, which has three contenders on most lists of worst airports: La Guardia, Kennedy International and Newark Liberty International. While traffic at La Guardia rose 9 percent and Newark 7 percent between 1996 and 2001, passenger volume at Kennedy dropped almost 4 percent. MacArthur Airport in Islip on Long Island, meanwhile, handled 85 percent more passengers in 2001 than it did in 1996, F.A.A. figures show. Bradley International Airport in Hartford, which is an alternative to Boston and New York, experienced a 27 percent jump in that period. Not coincidentally, many of these airports started or added service by Southwest Airlines and other low-fare carriers. Southwest, for example, began flying into MacArthur early in 1999 and in Hartford later that year. JetBlue began flying into Long Beach in 2001. More than 60 percent of all flights to and from Oakland are operated by Southwest. As suburban and regional airports grow, offering more frequent flights and more destinations, some consultants said they could begin to act as magnets for businesses seeking to expand or relocate outside of big cities. "You might see a corporate move to some of these midlevel cities to save on air fare costs," said James Diffley, a managing director of Global Insight, a consulting firm in Lexington, Mass. Stephen R. Elliott, president of SRE Associates, an architectural firm, said that cheap and convenient airline connections were one reason he relocated his business to Chattanooga from Cheyenne, Wyo. The convenience of smaller airports is not without some cost. Flights are not as frequent, there is less nonstop service and the airports have fewer amenities, like lounges and business centers. "I often take an early morning flight, and White Plains doesn't have a Starbucks like you have at La Guardia," Ms. Henry said. "It has a diner, but that's not the same." But she and others say the benefits outweigh such inconveniences. "You have a three-and-a-half or four-hour wait just to get into Hartsfield, what with traffic and parking and all the security," Mr. Elliott said. "You lose a whole day every time you fly out of there, no matter where you are going." Even with additional layovers sometimes required by flying out of a smaller airport, he said, "you come out ahead." While some business travelers said fares at smaller airports were marginally higher than those at major cities, they generally said the differences were not enough to outweigh benefits like cheaper parking, shorter waits and quicker departures. Others said that the full-fare, last-minute tickets they tend to buy most often were just as expensive at major airports as at smaller ones. Ms. Henry, who lives in Darien, Conn., said that when she went on recruiting trips around the country, she would continue to fly out of White Plains as often as possible. "It's worth it," she said, "as long as the difference is not astronomical." http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/13/business/13SMAL.html?ex=1053833272&ei=1&en=0d1106c96faed7fe HOW TO ADVERTISE --------------------------------- For information on advertising in e-mail newsletters or other creative advertising opportunities with The New York Times on the Web, please contact onlinesales@xxxxxxxxxxx or visit our online media kit at http://www.nytimes.com/adinfo For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help@xxxxxxxxxxxx Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company