Say no to expansion

10

To the Editor:

The Vineyard does not need more planes, hangars, runways, and a larger terminal and parking area. Last summer’s air traffic was incessant. We should be planning for curbing expansion rather than increasing it.

 

Martha Moore
West Tisbury

10 COMMENTS

  1. one major problem with the airport here Is ( I have heard ) they don’t have a dishwasher that can handle the carts from private jets, and the stewardesses have to wash them by hand– how humiliating ! I would assume that an upgrade to the airport would address that issue. if hard working Vineyarder’s pony up a few million dollars to make life easier for the “job creators” and their help, who are we to complain ? They may actually throw us a crumb off their plate some day—and won’t that be great ?

    • DonDon12, perhaps do a bit or research before you try and inflame the ill-informed. “Hard working vineyarders’ aren’t contributing a DIME. FAA funds are obtained from USERS of the system: If you buy an airline ticket, there are taxes. If you charter a plane there is federal excise tax. If you own a plane there is a federal fuel tax. So If you are NOT a user, its NOT your money. And private jets do NOT use the terminal. General aviation is relegated to a very sparse room for pilots to check the weather. So in the interest of ACCURACY, any terminal expansion has NOTHING to do with private aircraft users. They don’t use the terminal. The airlines do.

    • It would also be great if men didn’t assume that only women have the job to wash dishes from private jets. The term “stewardess” is outdated for good reason. We have flight attendants now.

    • It’s not an attack to point out micro aggressions, Andrew. Most men don’t even realize when they are saying something sexist. I like and respect Don and likely he will respect my mild criticism, since I know he is not a sexist person. Instead of looking for trouble where there isn’t any, why don’t you look up micro aggression?

  2. Flights lengthy enough and with a sufficient passenger count to make flight attendants worth the increase in ticket price. Up to the airline and willingness of travelers to pay. But also limited by the length of runways and the size of arriving. What is the highest capacity plane known to land on the Island? Will any airport improvements allow larger planes to land?

    • After the length of the runway, The limiting factors are usually the weights of the aircraft on the runways,. AND taxiways. There is a government publication called ‘Northeast chart supplement”(formerly AP/FD) published every 56 days. It list the maximum allowed weight of aircraft whether single wheel landing gear tandem wheel etc. My reading of the current , for the longer runway 06-24 says S 65, D 108, 2S 137. 2D185. The shorter runway 15-33 has lower weight limits. I suspect those are in thousands of pounds. The airport manager should be able to answer your question with respect to the weights of particular aircraft type. I remember when Northeast flew their ‘yellowbirds’ in here, which were the shorter DC-9, just as Clinton did with the military version. I have seen a 727-100 (short one) in here that was a travel club that visited years ago. The current largest I have seen are the Embraer E-190 operated by JetBlue and American eagle. There are also firefighting requirements for commercial operations and airport certifications that address that.

    • So inquire of the manager as to whether the current runway repave will increase the allowable weights. If the answer is yes, then heavier aircraft will be allowed. If the answer is no, the above limits still apply.

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