The upgrades have made it a nice airport. Still, we hardly ever use it. Why? Because the airline fare prices suck, compared to flying out of Philadelphia or Baltimore or DC. It seems like it is always a good $200 per person more through Harrisburg when we look at booking flights, and there's usually 4 of us flying, so why would we go through HIA?
I don't think we're alone in that assessment. Witness this news:
Passenger traffic at Harrisburg International Airport dropped 16% in February compared to the same month in 2005, airport owner Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority reported this morning. Board member David McIntosh blamed the decline on airlines's decisions to make fewer seats available for travel at HIA. He cited bankruptcy-related service reductions by TransMeridian Airlines, Northwest Airlines Corp. and Delta Air Lines Inc. resulting in almost 18% fewer seats available for sale last month compared to February 2005.
So... there's less flights coming in now. Passenger traffic is down. What's HIA going to do next? Looks like they're going to grab more land, of course!
Harrisburg International Airport has won a victory in its attempt to acquire a neighboring property by eminent domain. U.S. District Judge Christopher C. Conner dismissed a lawsuit filed by Attorney General Tom Corbett’s office claiming that the airport’s attempt to acquire 17 acres owned by Cramer Airport Parking violated federal antitrust laws.
Susquehanna Area Regional Airport Authority now awaits a separate ruling in Dauphin County Court on how much the authority must pay landowner Stanford Cramer to acquire his lot. The authority wants Cramer’s land to expand cargo or corporate aviation facilities.
Currently that land IS used for passengers - folks using long-term parking. It seems to me that Cramer's is getting doubly screwed by the government and HIA because HIA isn't staying competitive with other nearby airports. First of all, less passenger traffic means less long-term parking. Secondly, they're taking Cramer's land so they try to make money in another form of aviation service.
Kudos to the Attorney General's office for fighting for Cramer's. This land grab seems wrong and unfair to boot - and with little confidence in the intellectual consideration in the reasoning for it, either.