International budget flights out of Stewart prove popular – Hudson Valley One
This story starts out giddy about Norwegian’s July numbers at Stewart Airport north of New York City. “The July numbers augur well for the success of a new international budget air carrier at Stewart Airport outside Newburgh…” But I’m not remotely as optimistic. First, the airline only filled 82.1 percent of seats; that’s not great for mid-summer. But more importantly, any idiot can make money in the middle of the summer flying over the Atlantic. Getting a ton of press upon launch with crazy cheap fares helped too. But now the media is quiet and we’re into the off-peak season when it gets a lot harder to fill those airplanes. If stats look good for January, then let’s talk.
The funny thing is that this isn’t even what I was quoted on in the story. That was more focused around whether airlines would lower fares at NYC airports to prevent people from wanting to hike out to Stewart in the first place. They may not need to bother.
6 comments on “Cranky on the Web: Norwegian’s Fast Start at Stewart”
Why is it wondering if people would go out to Stewart from NYC to fly them and not it’s just service to keep people from having yo trek out to JFK or Newark?
David SF – There just aren’t as many people out there who find that airport most convenient.
No
I live in central Suffolk County approximately 35 to 40 miles from JFK. As it turns out my daughter lives in New Windsor New York about three miles from Stewart field. I’ve made that trip at least a couple of hundred times and I can usually do it in 2 hours or less. I’ve gone to JFK any number of times and with the best of luck you’re dealing with an hour and a half – but if somebody has a flat tire on Southern State Parkway or there’s an accident on the Belt or the Van Wyck it could be well over two hours or more to make the trip to JFK. Then I have to park the car get to the terminal go through the cattle car procedure before you get on the plane. On the other hand a two-hour drive to Stewart , park the car easily , walk into the terminal right to the check-in counter and then right to the gate and you’re ready to board. Oh yes , and then the flight is substantially less costly, I know because I just came back from Ireland on Delta the same day that Norwegian started service to Shannon. As it turned out the first Norwegian plane landed in Shannon just a few minutes after us and I sure wish we had been on that one.
Now if that’s my thought process here on Long Island what about people who live say in Albany or Western Connecticut or South Western Massachusetts or even Westchester County?
“A guy named Bret Snyder, …”, that’s cute ;)
I got it, in your very first line you wrote “giddy”, pun intended on the guy’s name!