County Airport Manager: JetBlue Not Violating Laws By Offering Bahamas Flight

Last week JetBlue, one of the major flight companies at Westchester County Airport, announced that it's planning to offer an international flight to the Bahamas.

"JetBlue is excited to provide our Westchester and Fairfield County customers a simpler and more convenient way to access the Caribbean from their easy-in, easy-out local airport," said Dave Barger, CEO of JetBlue Airways. "We're equally as proud to offer the only regularly scheduled non-stop service from Westchester to the Caribbean."

Amidst concerns that planned construction projects could be setting the stage for the airport's expansion, WCA Manager Peter Scherrer said that JetBlue is following county-mandated limits on flight numbers and passenger capacities.

"They're following all the rules. A term use agreement controls growth of the airport and restricts further growth. The stated flight is in confinement of those rules," Scherrer explained. He said that JetBlue currently has a total of 26 departures and arrivals daily.

Pending government approval, JetBlue said in a statement that on November 15, 2011 it plans to provide one morning flight from WCA to Nassau, Bahamas on its Embraer E190 fleet, as well as an incoming afternoon flight. The planes hold 100 passengers.

Adherance to limits of four flights and 240 passengers per half hour were voluntary from 1984 through 2003, when the county created a resolution that legally mandated the caps and limited expansion at the 700-acre airport, which sits in Rye Brook, Harrison and North Castle.

When JetBlue and AirTrans came to WCA after 9/11, annual passenger rates increased from 800,000 to 2 million, according to Patricia Chemka, Westchester County Deputy Commissioner of Public Works.

Marcia Teschner, Chairperson of the Village of Rye Brook Airport Advisory Committee, has voiced concern about planned construction at the airport, which she says could facilitate the accommodation of more passengers and planes. The projects include the installation of two de-icing systems and construction of a two-story building to be used by the federal Transportation Security Authority (TSA.)

County officials, including Legislator Marty Rogowsky (D-Harrison,) say that the construction doesn't violate the 2003 agreement, but is being done to alleviate passenger congestion in waiting areas while also making space for federal security efforts.

Rogowsky said the resolution allows for "adjustments that may need to be made at the airport to address safety and environmental concerns."

Teschner said that after she gave a report in May about large planes at the airport to the county Airport Advisory Board, Scherrer announced that WCA would no longer allow flight companies to use planes like JetBlue's Airbus 320, which holds 150 passengers.

She said she's now looking to find out from Chemka if JetBlue will be able to find gate space for the Bahamas flight. Gate spaces, she explained, are auctioned every quarter, with an upcoming auction later this month.

Teschner said she has also voiced concern about plans to drain one of the de-icing tanks into the Blind Brook, as well as air quality issues that she says "have been totally avoided by every review ever done."

"This is big business," said Teschner. "I can't blame them for wanting more income. The airport is earning lots of money, and it's not going to the county; it has to stay at the airport. The more passengers they bring in, the more money they make."

But Scherrer maintains that the airport couldn't feasibly operate if it expanded and is instead meant as a community resource.

"The airport is really here to serve the community, mainly for business and vacations," Scherrer said. "We try to stay small and make destinations that people would like to go to."

"We're not trying to get big, that's the wrong direction," he explained. "We want to serve community and stay in our parameters. If we give people a number of travel benefits and good facility I think we're an asset."

Teschner said she hopes that by continuing to voice concern about plane sizes, noise, traffic and the environment that other community members will also call for independent investigations of the airport's activities.

Editor's Note: Teschner said that gate auctions are quarterly, with an upcoming auction this month. The article has been corrected to reflect this change. Also, to clarify, the headline reflects Scherrer's answer as to whether or not JetBlue might be violating the 2003 county agreement by offering an international flight, amidst concern that the airport and flight companies could be promoting growth of the facility by renovating it and offering more flight options.

This note was received by Patch on Aug. 4 from JetBlue's Manager of Communications for Latin America and the Caribbean: "We read your article and there was some information we'd like to clarify, principally the fact that we are not actually expanding but rather replacing one flight to RSW with one to Nassau. Secondly, we recently shifted from our A320 fleet to the E190’s to make sure we met the 240 passenger/hour allocation at all times of the day. We were not in violation of any weight limits; we removed the A320 due to passenger allocations and commercial optimization, and not due to any weight issues. Note: We were artificially capping our A320 flights to meet the restriction."