And the beat goes on: The runway to nowhere

My previous post here dealt with yet another article by Times-News Reporter Tim Hahn, who seems to have been delegated the task of fulfilling the Times Publishing Company's editorial policy in favor of the $80.5 million runway extension at the Erie airport in its news columns.

In the previous post, I referred to Hahn's reporting as "typical of the sloppy, superficial, incomplete and biased reporting one has come to expect from the monopoly daily, which raises more questions than it answers."

In Sunday's edition, Hahn surpassed those characteristics with an article headlined "Erie airport breaks ground on runway extension," in which he enshrined the Times Publishing Co.'s editorial policy in the very first sentence - what newspaper folks call the "lede" - with this moronic observation: "A 7,500 foot-long main runway has been a DESIRED (my emphasis) feature for the Erie International Airport since it was first documented in the facility's 1974 master plan."

Desired by whom? It's proponents, certainly, like those attending the ground breaking ceremony Saturday for the runway extension project. But how about it's many detractors, for whom the project is anathama, such as the homeowners who were forced willy-nilly to abandon their long-established homes inconveniently in the path of the runway extension, as well as those remaining residents who must suffer endlessly the roar of jets in their homes and yards day and night for the foreseeable future.
The certainly don't desire it.

And how about those who believe the runway extension is not only unnecessary, but counterproductive, a drag on limited county finances and tax revenues desperately needed for other core county services such as human and social services, always underfunded and unmet.

But where the Times Publishing Co. is concerned, those folks don't count. It's only those who "desire" the runway extension whose voices are heard and heeded, like the "large number of federal, state, county and local officials who spoke of the project's history and the benefits that are expected to come from it," according to Hahn, who seems to be prepping for a spot on the editorial page staff.

Hahn quoted comments made at the groundbreaking by Lou Porreco, past president of the airport authority who said: "When this expansion is completed, we will be opening the door here for more aircraft operations with greater range, capacity and safety than we have ever enjoyed in the past,"..."before sinking his shovel into the brown earth." "That will be extremely important for the future of this region."

That's a lot like what Porreco's counterparts in Pittsburgh said a couple decades ago when they abandoned the old Pittsburgh airport and built a brand new one costing hundreds of millions more to accommodate "more aircraft operations" in that transportation hub. Problem is, it never materialized, and today the new Pittsburgh airport is a ghost city, with most of its terminals shuttered due to the lack of demand for transport services there. Here's how the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described it several months ago.

Airport traffic declined again last year
Friday, February 12, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Passenger traffic dropped another 7.8 percent at Pittsburgh International Airport last year, continuing a trend that began after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and has yet to abate.

Overall, eight million travelers used the airport in 2009, compared to 8.7 million in 2008. That's only about a third of the 20.7 million passengers that used the airport in 1997, its record year, when it was a major hub for US Airways.

The Allegheny County Airport Authority attributed the latest decline to a 20 percent decline in passengers posted by US Airways, which eliminated its Pittsburgh hub in 2004 but still is the region's dominant carrier with nearly 29 percent of the traffic.

AirTran Airways posted a 24.8 percent gain in 2009 and Southwest Airlines, the airport's second largest carrier, showed a three percent increase, but neither was enough to offset the US Airways losses.
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And here's a blog I first posted a year or so ago pertaining to the "desired" airport feature.

Mob hysteria fuels runway project

A contagious mob hysteria has overtaken Erie county council and executive Mark DiVecchio, egged on by the development-at-any cost crowd and its mouthpiece, the Times Publishing Co., as they bind taxpayers to superfluous runway expansion at the Erie airport to expand services already underutilized by Erie’s anemic air passenger market,which should be directed towards more traditional and critical county needs.

All county residents must pay one way or another for the runway project, despite the fact that nearly half the county’s residents outside city and Millcreek/Summit boundaries will derive little or no benefit from it. Most of the relatively few who use air passenger services at all, prefer to drive to Buffalo, Cleveland or Pittsburgh where a more convenient and timely array of flights await to serve them.

Any benefit to them from this wasteful expenditure is negligible or non-existent.While all council members share in the political depravity inherent in the airport runway scheme, the principal culprit is the county executive who is pandering to Times-News editorialists and their sycophants.

Proponents claim the runway project is needed to fuel future economic growth which will enhance the entire county. But no one has produced a single credible survey or study to support their contention, nor anything resembling a cost-benefit analysis. Rather, county officials are flying, so to speak, by the seat of their pants