A Great Little Airport–Except for the Parking

Leonard J. Honeyman writes “Lens Lens,” a blog that occasionally veers into the travel space. Here are some comments on a recent trip.

“The last plug will be for Air Tran Airways and the Westchester County Airport. Again, this is voluntary — I got no discounts, no promises, just want to tell you all about an alternative to the New York airports and even to Bradley International, although I love Bradley.

Air Tran runs nonstop between White Plains (yes, the airport is in Harrison and Rye but the airlines say White Plains) and Orlando. Not having to change planes is wonderful. It’s pretty cheap, too, about $200 round trip flying on a Sunday and a Friday. White Plains is a tight, clean little airport. Unlike New Haven, the planes actually go somewhere besides Philadelphia and the Washington area.

The only problem is the parking. There is little of it and if you find a space, it’s more than $21 a day, no matter how long you stay. No long-term discounts. Unlike Bradley and the New York airports, there are no off-site parking lots and no scheduled bus service goes there from Connecticut.

If the parking were better, the airport would really take off.

But that won’t happen because the county doesn’t want it to.
Westchester County Airport is run by Westchester County. So, it’s a victim of the same type of politics that keeps Tweed-New Haven Airport from being all it can be.

People bought houses near the airport, probably for a lot less than homes farther from the airport and then discovered (G*A*S*P) that there are airplanes flying low in the area.

So, they set out to have that low flying, also known as taking off and landing, cut out as much as possible. And like New Haven, idiot politicians listen to this and curtail the airport’s operations.”