Worcester Regional Airport


Worcester Regional Airport is three miles west of Worcester, in Worcester County, Massachusetts. The main property lies within municipalities of Worcester and Leicester, with supporting facilities in Paxton. Once owned by the City of Worcester, the airport has been owned and operated by the Massachusetts Port Authority since June 2010.

History

Early years

Worcester's entry into the world of aviation began in 1925, when city officials commissioned a study to examine sites for the city's first airport. On the list of sites was land owned by a wealthy local citizen, Whitin Whitall. In 1927, Whitall, independently of the city commission, set up an airport on his land in North Grafton, above sea level. This two-runway airport opened for leisure travel on October 12, 1927.
As air travel became more popular, airport expansion was the subject of a second study commissioned by the city. The Grafton airport was deemed too small to accommodate the air travel needs of the region. The location of the present airport, Tatnuck Hill, on the borders of Worcester, Leicester, and Paxton, was high on the commission's list. One problem noted by the commission was the weather: at above sea level, the Tatnuck site was often surrounded by fog. Despite this problem, the city eventually chose Tatnuck as the new site, and construction began in 1944. The airport was ceremoniously opened on May 4, 1946, and started regular passenger service one week later on May 10, 1946. The Grafton airport remained in operation until 1951, when the owners, due to the dwindling traffic, decided to dismantle the airport. The land was redeveloped as a residential neighborhood. Leicester Airport, a small private airfield also built during the first half-century of aviation, was active until the 1970s. It still sits, now mostly overgrown in the shadow of Worcester Regional.
Millions of dollars were spent replacing the old terminal, which hosted a half-dozen airlines before its demolition. In the mid 1980s and early 1990s, major carriers, such as Piedmont, Northwest Airlines, Continental, and USAir all flew mainline jets into Worcester. In addition, smaller carriers, like New York Air and Presidential Airways also had jet service. The small terminal had two ground level jetways built to accommodate the growth. But one by one, those carriers left. A succession of second-tier air carriers have come and gone over the last decade.

2000–2020

returned commercial service to ORH with flights to Orlando/Sanford, FL on December 22, 2005, and expanded to 4 flights per week in March 2006. Allegiant announced on August 22, 2006, that they would cut ties with the airport, citing high fuel costs and passenger loads in the 80% range as the reason for departure. The announcement of flights ending took people by surprise as service was popular and well-regarded by the flying public throughout Allegiant's entire tenure at the airport.
On September 4, 2008, Direct Air announced they would begin service to Worcester beginning in November 2008, with flights from Orlando/Sanford, FL and Fort Myers/Punta Gorda, FL. The flights were originally operated by Virgin America using Airbus A320 aircraft, however Direct Air was required to return the aircraft in June 2009 to suffice Virgin's rapidly expanding domestic routes. At this point, Direct Air began operating flights using Boeing 737-400's owned by Xtra Airways. Due to this being a wet-lease agreement, there were times where the aircraft was unavailable and other aircraft had to be chartered for the flights. Such examples include service with Airbus A320 from USA 3000 and Boeing 757 from North American Airlines. In March 2009, Direct Air added additional flights to Myrtle Beach, SC. In July 2010, Direct Air expanded their Worcester service further to West Palm Beach, Florida. The airline had further plans to launch flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico and Nassau, Bahamas, but in March 2012 Direct Air suspended all operations and later filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 12, 2012.
On April 3, 2013, JetBlue announced daily flights to Orlando, Florida and Fort Lauderdale, Florida starting November 7, 2013. This came after over a year of negotiating with the airline that included a competition among local residents to help advertise the city. This became the first mainline service out of Worcester in over a decade. The airline currently uses the 100-seat Embraer 190 for their flights, although occasionally they are substituted for the 162-seat Airbus A320.
A revamp of the defunct airline Air Florida had planned to fly out of Worcester at the beginning of 2015 as a scheduled charter operation however the airline never got off the ground.
On November 17, 2015, Rectrix Aviation opened a new FBO building and hangar in Worcester. Rectrix also launched flights between Worcester and Cape Cod in the summer of 2017 with their newly established commercial airline operation, Rectrix Shuttle. After two summers Rectrix replaced Worcester with Westchester County Airport on their route map ending the service after two summers due to low demand.
On February 28, 2017, JetBlue announced it would expand its service at the airport, adding a daily non-stop flight to New York City. JetBlue did not provide a start date, but airline officials said the new flights would not begin until after the landing system operational. The first revenue flight to New York left Worcester at 6 AM on May 3, 2018. Despite the same reliability found at Logan with the new landing system flights to JFK after three years have been 40-50 percent full. Although JetBlue has currently suspended all flights due to COVID-19, they have already announced intentions to return to full schedule in the future however after October 1, 2020 are not required to do so.
On April 9, 2018, American Airlines announced it would begin daily non-stop service from Worcester to Philadelphia on October 4, 2018. On June 4, American Airlines announced it would add a second daily flight and would be changing the schedule of the initial flight. The service would operate twice-daily on 50-seat Embraer ERJ-145s. Despite the efforts to add an additional frequency, Piedmont announced in February only 4 months into service a reduction to only one daily flight starting in June 2019 due to low demand. American has since ended service to Worcester as of June 2020.
On August 28, 2018, Delta Air Lines announced it would begin daily non-stop service from Worcester to Detroit Metropolitan Airport, operated by Delta Connection; which began on August 1, 2019, using 50-seat CRJ-200's.

2020-Present

On January 25, 2020, Delta announced it would, too, begin cutting back flights dropping its Saturday flight due to low demand. There was initially speculation that the Saturday flight may return in May, however the future of service remains uncertain with Delta experiencing 50-60 percent loads to Detroit.
Currently, just as airports across the rest of the country, Worcester is concentrated on the return to service prior to COVID-19. JetBlue has suspended service indefinitely while American has once again removed Worcester from its route map and ended service after only two years. Delta is currently the only airline operating out of Worcester to maintain minimum service through the CARES Act. Although JetBlue has announced intentions to return in the future, both Delta and JetBlue are no longer required by the government after October 1, 2020 once the CARES Act expires.

Massport

The airport had been under an operating agreement with Massport, the Massachusetts Port Authority, for several years. Under the agreement, the city and Massport paid the operating deficit together.
By law, Worcester had to transfer ownership of the airport to Massport sometime in 2009 or 2010. As of July 1, 2010, Massport became the owner and operator of the airport.

Other uses

Worcester Regional Airport was used for shooting of the films Captain Phillips, Knight and Day, The Judge and The Sea of Trees.

Facilities

Worcester Regional Airport covers 1,000 acres and has two runways: 11/29 is 7,001 x 150 ft and 15/33 is 5,000 x 100 ft. Runways 11 and 29 have ILS equipment. EMAS pads are located at the starting thresholds of runways 11 and 29.
The airport passenger terminal has four gates with jetways and two ramp level gates for regional carriers. The terminal has two baggage carousels and a TSA installed passenger and baggage screening system on the first floor.
There are also two Mirage Express cafes located inside the airport.
WBZ-TV operates a doppler weather radar station at the airport.
Rectrix Aviation is the fixed-base operator at the airport.

Category III Landing System

On April 28, 2016 Massport approved funding for the installation of a Category IIIb instrument landing system at ORH. The geographic location of the airport, on top of the tallest hill in the city reaching approximately 1,000 feet above sea level, leaves Worcester on average with 40 more days of fog a year than nearby Boston. The installation of the Category IIIb landing system will allow capable aircraft to land and depart in virtually all weather conditions. There are no Category IIIc airports in the United States; it is simply not allowed for safety reasons. The installation of the landing system also included the addition of a jug-handle taxiway at the approach end of Runway 11.
The ILS system was completed in December 2017, and went live on March 19, 2018. Completion of the ILS allowed JetBlue to add a flight from Worcester to New York-JFK, operated with an Embraer 190 aircraft capable of autoland. The same aircraft are used for flights to Ft. Lauderdale and Orlando likewise are also able to use the ILS. However, American's flight to Philadelphia was operated by an Embraer 145 aircraft which was not able to use the newly installed Category III system which lead to many weather cancelations and diversions during their second brief tenure. This is also the case with the Bombardier CRJ-200 Delta currently flies to Detroit.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Destinations map

Historical service

Source:

Statistics

For 12-month period ending July 23, 2017, the airport had 36,032 aircraft operations, an average of 99 per day: 91% general aviation, 4% scheduled commercial, 3% military and 3% air taxi. In January 2018, there were 74 aircraft based at this airport: 69 single-engine and 5 multi-engine.
At its peak in 1989, Worcester Airport served about 354,000 passengers. In 2009, the airport served fewer than 50,000 passengers, though 107,000 passengers used the airport in 2011.
On June 10, 2016 JetBlue and the City of Worcester celebrated the 300,000th passenger since beginning service in 2013, an average of about 84%.
In the calendar year of 2019, the airport served over 196,000 passengers, with JetBlue serving about 79% of passengers, Piedmont serving 18% of passengers, and SkyWest serving about 3% of all passengers.

Top destinations

Ground transportation

Three rental car agencies are located in the terminal building at Worcester Regional Airport. Avis, Hertz, and Thrifty all have concession stands across from the baggage claim.
The Worcester Regional Transit Authority 's bus connects Union Station, a regional MBTA Commuter Rail, Amtrak, and bus transportation hub in the Downtown Worcester district, with the airport. Union Station is the western terminus of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Framingham/Worcester Line, with eastbound service to Back Bay and South Station in Boston. Additionally, service via Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited Boston section to/from Albany, New York, with connections to Chicago stops at this location, as does intercity,, and other local WRTA bus services at Union Station.
The airport presently lacks a direct connection to an Interstate Highway. However, a number of Interstate routes such as: I-290, I-90, I-190, I-395, I-495, and routes: MA-9, MA-122, and MA-146 provide access through smaller access roads. Travel time to reach the airport is approximately 5–10 minutes after exiting Interstate I-290, Worcester's primary access via interstate highway from the north and the south also with direct access to the Massachusetts Turnpike.