Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Come Fly With Sue!
In the latest installment of Sue Kelly’s series of press releases on non-events, Sue extols her plans to make Stewart International Airport the next “international reliever airport”. Turns out that, in fantastizing that Stewart could be the “4th” airport for the NY metropolitan area, Sue blithely blows by little details like, uh, location.
If we dig a little deeper, and listen to people who actually know what they are talking about, like the folks at the Port Authority, we find that the “serious discussions at the highest levels” about reliever airports only reference the “possibility” of Stewart. Just a few things seem to doom this idea, things that starry-eyed Ms. Kelly ignores – like, $300 million for an expansion project, $200 million for a rail link (which someone – meaning the taxpayers - has to pay for) – and the fact that the Port Authority’s entire charter would have to be changed, to overcome its existing “25 miles from the Statue of Liberty” area of jurisdiction.
But scariest of all – Sue has visions of transforming Stewart into Orlando. Like she thinks that’s a good thing.
Earth to Sue…..
If we dig a little deeper, and listen to people who actually know what they are talking about, like the folks at the Port Authority, we find that the “serious discussions at the highest levels” about reliever airports only reference the “possibility” of Stewart. Just a few things seem to doom this idea, things that starry-eyed Ms. Kelly ignores – like, $300 million for an expansion project, $200 million for a rail link (which someone – meaning the taxpayers - has to pay for) – and the fact that the Port Authority’s entire charter would have to be changed, to overcome its existing “25 miles from the Statue of Liberty” area of jurisdiction.
But scariest of all – Sue has visions of transforming Stewart into Orlando. Like she thinks that’s a good thing.
Earth to Sue…..
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Then maybe Putnam County can change their slogan to "Putnam County- Where the country used to begin."
Airlines have tried Stewart before, and the response from the public has been underwhelming. Just another attempt to put money in the pockets of the people who own the airport, who, I'd bet are contributors to Sue. All the while removing money from OUR pockets to pay for the infrastructure.
Let's send Sue on a long vacation in November. She can fly out of Stewart if she likes...
Airlines have tried Stewart before, and the response from the public has been underwhelming. Just another attempt to put money in the pockets of the people who own the airport, who, I'd bet are contributors to Sue. All the while removing money from OUR pockets to pay for the infrastructure.
Let's send Sue on a long vacation in November. She can fly out of Stewart if she likes...
Yesterday, I flew to Orlando for business and saw first-hand how delusional Sue's pipe-dream really is. Here's one big difference between Orlando and Stewart: you can actually get someplace from Orlando. There were 15 departure screens, each listing 10 flights (and yes, I counted). Yet to fly from Stewart to Orlando, I would have had to pay twice as much for a flight that, because of connections, would have taken twice as long.
There's also another little thing that Orlando has that the Hudson Valley doesn't: Disney, which brings in hundreds of thousands of tourists every day, thus enticing airlines to fly here. There's just nothing like that in the Hudson Valley to fill enough planes to make Stewart viable.
Finally: Sue's been talking about this tired old plan of a super-Stewart since at least 1996. Time to dream about something else, Sue.
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There's also another little thing that Orlando has that the Hudson Valley doesn't: Disney, which brings in hundreds of thousands of tourists every day, thus enticing airlines to fly here. There's just nothing like that in the Hudson Valley to fill enough planes to make Stewart viable.
Finally: Sue's been talking about this tired old plan of a super-Stewart since at least 1996. Time to dream about something else, Sue.
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: 10:25 AM
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