MacArthur Airport May Lose $1.4M For 2013

Long Island MacArthur Airport in Ronkonkoma has reportedly lost $4.2 million in the past three years and may be down another $1.4 million in 2013.

According to a Newsday report citing figures from Islip Town, funds from a recent property sale are being used to compensate for deficits. Previously to 2010 however, the airport was consistently able to bring in more income than its expenses.

Declines in service at the airport are explained in the report as relating to fuel prices rising in 2008, and never coming back down. This reportedly is leading to smaller airports, such as MacArthur, to cut back on destinations.

Southwest Airlines, which provides 13 of the airport’s 22 flights, has reportedly cut back from 11,416 departures in 2007 to 5,875 in 2012. Islip Councilman John C. Cochrane Jr., liaison to the airport, said in the report that while flights are 92 percent filled, the number of times passengers board has fallen. Citing town data the report says passengers were boarding from 1,183,576 times in 2007, falling to 678,848 times in 2012.

Should the airport lose more than $600,000 in 2014, Islip town may have to use general fund surplus to fill the gap.

“If we have a loss and we don’t have the money in the airport, then it goes back to the general fund,” Cochrane said in the report. “We don’t want that to happen -- but we realize that that is the fallback, to go into the capital fund.”

In the meantime, Cochrane said the airport is laying off staff, cutting down overtime, adding a general aviation landing fee, collecting rent from other town and county agencies using airport space and attracting businesses to lease storefronts in the airport in order to cut costs and generate revenue.

Recent businesses coming to the airport include JVC Broadcasting’s Long Island News Radio starting broadcasts from MacArthur on Dec. 26, Allegiant Airlines starting service to Fort Myers/Punta Gorda, Florida this past Friday and PenAir launching service to Boston last July.

In the meantime, Cochrane said other goals include plans to possibly extend one of MacArthur’s runways to 7,000 feet, and hopefully attract another major airline.

“We need that next American Airlines or Delta or Jet Blue,” Cochrane said in the report. “If we get that, then it’ll be happy days like it was 10 years ago.”

Click here for the original report in Newsday (Subscription).