In
September 2007, the Reliant Air
hangar burned to the ground at
Danbury Municipal Airport, forcing
some who had relied on the small
charter carrier to find alternate
means to get to Nantucket, Martha’s
Vineyard and other points in
the Northeast.
According
to new federal statistics, the
airport has been waiting for things
to heat back up on the passenger
front, and is seeing results.
Long one of the busiest airports
in the state due to flight-training
businesses based there, in 2007
Danbury Municipal Airport suffered
a drop in passenger traffic due
to the Reliant Air fire, from which
it has since largely recovered.
More than 3,300 passengers boarded
charter commercial flights in 2006,
according to FAA data. While the
agency’s official 2007 figures
showed among the steepest drops
in passenger traffic in the nation,
Danbury Municipal Airport official
Michael Safranek questioned the
FAA data, saying Reliant Air suffered
only a short-term disruption in
its schedule.
Danbury Municipal Airport traces
its history to the 1920’s, when
two businessmen felt the growing
city needed an airfield and purchased
60 acres to build what was then
known as Tucker Field. One of just
four municipally owned airports
in the state today, the city has
since expanded the airfield to
250 acres, authorizing $500,000
annually to run the facility and
reporting special revenue of $350,000
deriving from airport operations.
Passenger traffic has comprised
a comparatively skimpy amount of
Danbury Municipal Airport’s own
flights, according to records on
file with the FAA and parent U.S.
Department of Transportation. For
the most recent 12-month period
on record, the airport handled
more than 79,000 flights, about
half of them from planes based
at the airfield, and half from
itinerant planes landing in Danbury.
The airport handled more than 100
military flights that year.
The FAA survey tracks both major
airports like LaGuardia Airport
and John F. Kennedy International
Airport on Long Island; as well
as small heliports like the East
34th Street pad in Manhattan, which
numbered among the top 15 gainers
in the nation thanks in part to
commuter shuttle services by U.S.
Helicopter Corp. originating in
Stratford and other New York City-area
airports.
Of airports with at least a half-million
passengers, Bradley International
Airport north of Hartford had the
largest percentage drop in passengers
at 5 percent, to 3.2 million total.
After launching service to Amsterdam
with great fanfare in 2007, Northwest
Airlines canceled the run last
month.
For those airports that handled
at least 400,000 passengers last
year, Westchester County Airport
increased its passenger count from
511,000 to nearly 825,000, thanks
to JetBlue Airways Corp. adding
Westchester as a regional spoke
in 2007.This month, JetBlue announced
plans to double its flight capacity
at Westchester.
Danbury Municipal Airport has been
designated a “reliever” airport
to take general aviation traffic
for the larger Westchester County
Airport. In addition to Westchester
and Dutchess County airports, Danbury
Municipal Airport competes for
business with Waterbury-Oxford
Airport and the Igor I. Sikorsky
Memorial Airport in Stratford.
top
of page
|
