Alternate Airports Can Be a Relief for Fliers

Today may be the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but if you’re an air traveler, don’t give thanks just yet.

If you’re lucky, you will have survived slow airport traffic, long ticket lines, clogged airport parking lots, gate and air traffic delays, crowded airplanes and, possibly, bad weather.

More than 7 million people will have flown on U.S. airlines during the five-day holiday period that started Wednesday and ends today. That’s a record. (Only 5.1 million flew during the same period in 1984.)

Airports Jammed

Even more staggering is the record being set today: 2 million travelers will jam U.S. airports--an all-time one-day record. And, while more people travel during the Christmas season, Thanksgiving passenger traffic is concentrated over fewer days.

If you happen to be flying to or through Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, St. Louis, Dallas or Atlanta, you can expect the biggest crowds.

And the statistics get worse.

“It’s become an exponential nightmare,” an airline official said. Indeed, demand for air travel has doubled in the last 12 years. By the year 2000, it is expected to double again.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, 800 million people are expected to board airplanes in 1999.

Not surprisingly, 71% of Americans favor expanding the national aviation system as the best way to reduce delays, according to a recent poll sponsored by the Partnership for Improved Air Travel, an airline industry lobbying group.

But in the short run, the airport mess threatens to get worse before it gets better.

There is, however, a short-range solution to the problem. When flying to or from a major city, consider using an alternate airport.

Flying to New York City? Use Newark. To Washington? Try Baltimore. Chicago? Choose Midway. San Francisco? Look at Oakland or San Jose. Los Angeles? There’s Burbank.

All of these airports are uncrowded, and in many cases more conveniently located.

My favorite alternate airport is Oakland. I use it every time I fly to San Francisco. I’ve never been delayed getting into or out of Oakland, and it’s a faster ride over the Bay Bridge to S1634607174from San Francisco International Airport.

Another reason why it’s faster is the design of the airport. Can you name another major airport where rental cars are 100 feet from the main terminal building? Oakland is, to put it mildly, a breeze.

Do You Know the Way?

American Airlines has embarked on a $50-million hub at the San Jose airport, another good alternative to San Francisco International. American’s program begins Friday with 68 daily flights to 15 U.S. cities.

Another favorite alternate airport is Baltimore. It continues to be an attractive choice if you’re flying to the Washington area. The still under-used airport is almost always uncrowded. And flights leave on time.

Washington’s Dulles, once almost deserted when it came to domestic travel, is humming--but not out of control.

And United Airlines continues to expand its hub there. The airline has begun service to five airports from Dulles: Nashville, JFK, Norfolk, Pittsburgh and Houston’s Hobby airport, itself an alternate and often preferred airport over Houston Intercontinental.

In New York City, both La Guardia and JFK are operating at over-capacity levels. Newark is a realistic and practical alternative. Frequent shuttle service from Newark to Manhattan is often faster than the journey into the city from JFK.

Chicago’s O’Hare comes as close to airport gridlock as possible. Midway Airport, a neglected choice for years, has suddenly become a first choice for many frequent flyers (traffic at Midway is expected to jump 31% by the year 2000).

Getting to Midway from downtown Chicago is often easier than the trip to O’Hare, especially during rush hour.

Los Angeles International is already operating over capacity. It handled 45 million passengers last year, 5 million more than it was designed to handle.

But many of the domestic airlines that serve LAX also fly directly into Burbank airport. And the schedule has become more diversified. In addition to the normal traffic between Burbank and the Bay Area, there are a host of daily nonstop flights to Chicago, Dallas, Seattle, St. Louis and Denver.

Good Alternatives

What about hub airports? If you’re not flying across country, and you have to make a connection, there are some good alternatives.

Denver is not one of them. It’s on my list of must-miss airports, especially at this time of the year. It is a Rocky Mountain low point of bad design, for both planes and people.

(Both Continental and United have dropped flights to the Mile High City, citing over-capacity.)

According to the FAA, a two-hour delay at Denver creates a bottleneck for the entire air traffic system. Denver’s Stapleton Airport accounts for 10% of the delays in the United States, and the FAA estimates that by 1996, it will win the dubious distinction of leading the nation in flight delays.

St. Louis also is a problem airport. Unless you’re in training for a walking marathon, avoid Lambert Field, particularly during the holidays. Airlines flying into St. Louis, a market dominated by TWA, should give mileage points to passengers for the distances between gates.

Some reasonable alternatives are Salt Lake City, Kansas City and, weather permitting, Pittsburgh.

In Kansas City, passengers don’t have to walk far between gates, connections are easy and access to the airport is unencumbered.

(Braniff recently added 26 daily departures from the airport, many of which minimize layover periods between planes.)

Salt Lake City’s airport can boast one of the best on-time performance records of major U.S. airports. It is also one of the least congested. Salt Lake City gets its share of fog and snow but in the last six years the airport was shut down only once.

Weather can be a problem in Pittsburgh, which hubs to 99 nonstop destinations. But it’s often a better choice than Chicago to change planes.

Other alternate airports are coming into their own. There’s a new airport in Palm Beach, Fla. It’s the only major airport between Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. It’s a great alternative for anyone flying into Miami or Orlando.

Airport Expansion

And officials in Eugene, Ore., have completed an $18-million expansion project that makes the airport an attractive alternative to Portland (31% of Eugene air travelers drive 125 miles to fly out of Portland).

In New York, officials at Stewart International Airport are lobbying hard to become an alternate to JFK. Residents in the state’s Hudson Valley often travel 60 miles or more by car to catch their flights.

But if you’re hoping for a new alternate airport in Denver, you may have to wait a long time. Last May, citizens in Adams County voted to annex 45 square miles of rolling farmland 18 miles northeast of Denver to become the world’s largest airport.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the $3-billion airport probably won’t be finished until 1995.

By that time, Stapleton could well be nothing more than an armed camp of militant travelers. There’s a good chance that in Denver, and other major cities, today may soon seem like just another day.