Syracuse Hancock International
Airport is a joint civil-military public airport located
northeast of Syracuse
, in Onondaga County
, New
York
, off of Interstate 81
near Mattydale
, New
York. The main terminal complex is located at the
eastern end of
Colonel Eileen
Collins Boulevard.
History
In 1927 Syracuse mayor
Charles Hanna
felt that his city needed an airport.
A location at Amboy in
the town of Camillus, New York was
purchased for $50,000, and by 1928, the
"Syracuse City
Airport at Amboy"
was handling airmail. At the end of World War II the United States Army Air Corps
leased their bomber base near Mattydale, New
York to the city. On
September 17,
1949, the
Clarence E. Hancock Airport opened to the public
using a renovated machine shop as a terminal, and replaced the
airport at Amboy. American, Buffalo, Colonial and
Robinson Airlines were the first airlines
to operate at the airport, and
American Airlines still does to this
day.
In 1962 a new terminal opened, at the site of the present-day
terminals. The location allowed the airport to be directly
connected to
Interstate 81, which was
built shortly afterwards.
In 1970 the airport was awarded international
airport status by the International
Civil Aviation Organization
, and thus renamed Syracuse Hancock International
Airport.
When the United States deregulated the airline industry in 1978,
Syracuse was predominantly served by two "trunk carriers" (
American Airlines and
Eastern Air Lines) and one "local service
carrier" (
Allegheny Airlines,
which renamed itself
USAir in 1979). American
and Eastern used the airport's south concourse, and Allegheny used
the north concourse.
Shortly after deregulation American began
cutting back on regional point-to-point flights at medium-sized
airports in the Northeast such as Syracuse, as Chairman Robert
Crandall built up the airline's hub at Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport
. Other airlines entered or grew service at
Syracuse to meet demand as the industry grew following
deregulation.
Airlines that served Syracuse after deregulation include (but are
not limited to):
- North Central Airlines, a
Minnesota-based local service carrier which made Syracuse its only
Upstate New York station, a stop on a route between Detroit and
Boston. North Central quickly merged with Atlanta-based Southern Airways and San Francisco-based
Hughes Airwest to form Republic Airlines . Republic
was bought by Northwest Airlines
in 1987. Northwest serves Syracuse today and was bought by Delta Air Lines in 2008. Republic entered
other Upstate NY airports in 1984 with service to its Detroit
hub.
- TWA (Trans World Airlines) began service
from Syracuse to a short-lived hub in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1979.
After the
Pittsburgh experiment ended, TWA shifted Syracuse's service to its
hub at Lambert St. Louis International
Airport
. Syracuse was the only Upstate NY airport to
hang onto service initiated by TWA. They stayed at Syracuse until
about 1990.
- Empire Airlines ,
whose history at Syracuse is detailed below.
- Syracuse was an early station for Peoplexpress Airlines, a low-fare
carrier founded in 1981 with a hub at Newark
International Airport
and which quickly grew into a major carrier.
Due to some bad business decisions, People became unviable and was
bought in 1986 by Continental
Airlines whose Continental
Connection and Continental
Express units serve Syracuse today.
- United Airlines, which had long
served Buffalo and Rochester, but which only entered Syracuse and
Albany after deregulation, in 1982. United and its affiliates serve
Syracuse today.
Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the airport went through several
expansions to meet increasing demand.
Empire Airlines, which was
founded in 1976, made Syracuse a
hub,
and over two million passengers a year were using the airport.
Piedmont Airlines
absorbed Empire in 1986 and kept the Syracuse hub.
The mid-to-late 1980s
were the best years in Hancock history, with a record 3.17 million
passengers using the airport in 1987, second in Upstate New York only to Buffalo
, and its 253 daily flights even made it the top
Upstate New York airport in terms of flights. Hub-carrier
Piedmont operated most of the gates in Terminal A, operating 58 jet
flights and 12 commuter flights a day in 1987. Terminal A was
expanded that year, adding more gates, a Piedmont Presidential Club
(a
US Airways Club until 2004), and a
larger
customs area.
With
USAir's purchase of Piedmont in
1989, things started going sour for Hancock International. USAir
closed the Syracuse hub, and Syracuse therefore lost its advantage
over other upstate airports. A final terminal expansion was
completed in 1996, along with an overall overhaul and renovation,
which created two separate terminal areas with individual, checkin,
security, and baggage claim. USAir still maintained a large
presence at the airport but reduced flights throughout the 1990s.
After the
September 11, 2001
attacks, the now-renamed US Airways cut even more flights and
did not renew its leases for many of its gates in Terminal A, upon
which the airport essentially "boarded them up." US Airways is
still the number one carrier at Hancock in terms of both departures
and destinations served.
However, a new era began on
May 7,
2001 when
JetBlue inaugurated
low-cost service to Hancock. Mainly using the first gate of
Terminal A, Gate 15, most of this terminal still remains asleep. In
2007, JetBlue also expanded its operation to include usage of gates
3 and 11. More discount carriers followed suit and began servicing
Syracuse.
Charter
airline TransMeridian
Airlines began its first scheduled routes ever when it started
flying six weekly flights to Orlando
Sanford International Airport
in 2003. It flew the route until its
bankruptcy in 2005.
JetBlue began flying non-stop to Orlando
International Airport
daily in July 2006. Independence Air began flying eight daily
roundtrips to Washington Dulles International
Airport
in 2004, but Independence Air's parent company
filed for bankruptcy protection in November 2005 and flew its last
flight in January 2006. US Airways announced on
May 10, 2004 that it would increase service to
Hancock, lower fares, and add seats by converting flights from
turboprop to
regional jet.
In 2004, Syracuse Mayor
Matthew
Driscoll created a
Fly
Syracuse television and internet campaign in an attempt to
lower fares and increase passenger traffic at the airport. The
airport has since experienced a period of growth thanks to the
efforts of local politicians and business contributions toward the
campaign.
In May
2005, American Eagle
announced daily flights to Dallas-Fort
Worth International Airport, that began that August. They were the
longest flights from Hancock before their discontinuation in
November 2008.
With the bankruptcies of TransMeridian Airlines and Independence
Air, JetBlue is once again the only low-fare carrier at Hancock. It
strengthened its position in 2006 by adding a Syracuse-Orlando
route and increasing its frequency to New York City. JetBlue also
began a Syracuse-Fort Lauderdale route on November 1, 2007 but
announced plans to suspend service in early 2009. Currently Jetblue
has 4 departures to New York JFK, 1 to Orlando and 1 to Fort
Lauderdale, all of them daily.
If the ambitious plans of mall developer
The Pyramid Companies to build
Destiny USA, a multi-billion dollar
tourism attraction which could attract millions of new visitors by
air, ever become reality, then Hancock would have to be expanded
again. Its current capacity is estimated at about 3.35 million
passengers a year.
There has even been talk of a monorail to Hancock from Syracuse
University
via downtown and DestiNY USA (estimated cost $750
million).
There are also plans to lengthen runway 10/28 and to build a
parallel runway on the north side of the airport. It would become
runway 10L/28R. (The existing runway 10/28 would become
10R/28L).
Operations
The Syracuse region receives an average 114 inches (289.56 cm) of
snow annually. The airport has a vast amount of snow removal
devices, including the world's largest
snowplow, which is wide and tall . On average, the
airport is closed less than 24 hours annually due to snowfall. The
airport has received the Balchen/Post Award for Excellence in the
Performance of Snow and Ice Control a total of seven times, most
recently in 2006.
[49021] Runway 10/28 has a Category II
Instrument Landing System
(ILS).
Terminals and destinations
Terminal A
Terminal B
Airline share
Note: Independence Air ceased operations January 5, 2006
Source:
[49022],
[49023]
Military facilities
The airport is also home to Hancock Field
Air National Guard Base. The host wing at
Hancock Field ANGB is the
174th
Fighter Wing (174 FW), with the 274th Air Support Operations
Squadron (274 ASOS) as an additional tenant command. Both units
belong to the
New York Air
National Guard and are operationally gained by the
Air Combat Command (ACC).
The installation consists of approximately 350 acres of flight
line, aircraft ramp and support facilities on the south side of the
airport. The base employs approximately 2,000 personnel consisting
of full-time Active Guard and Reserve (AGR), Air Reserve
Technicians (ART) and traditional part-time Air National Guardsmen.
The facility maintains the BAK-14 arresting gear on the airport's
primary runway for emergency use by military tactical jet aircraft
and also operates its own fire station with USAF crash vehicles
that augment the airport's civilian Aircraft Rescue and Fire
Fighting (ARFF) organization.
The 174 FW was formed on October 28, 1947 as the 138th Fighter
Squadron (138 FS), the first post-World War II Air National Guard
flying unit in New York State, and initially flew
P-47 Thunderbolts from the former Army Air
Force facilities at Hancock Field. The wing has been flown fighters
or attack aircraft for nearly its entire existence, to include the
such aircraft as the
F-86 Sabre,
A-37 Dragonfly,
A-10 Thunderbolt II and the
F-16 Fighting Falcon in its F-16A and
F-16C Block 25 and Block 30 variants. The wing was also one of two
Air National Guard fighter wings
that was totally mobilized to active duty and deployed to Southwest
Asia in 1990-91 to conduct combat flight operations in support of
Operation Desert Storm, as
well as providing additional support to
Operation NORTHERN WATCH in the
late 1990s.
As a result of
Base
Realignment and Closure (BRAC) 2005, the 174 FW was identified
for transition to an unmanned aircraft flying mission, operating
the
MQ-9 Reaper weapon system. In
October 2008, the first of the 174 FW's F-16s departed Hancock
Field ANGB for transfer to other units and the wing began its
transition. The wing will anticipates being operationally capable
with the MQ-9 in mid-2010.
See also
References
- http://www.174fw.ang.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123120104
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/174th_Fighter_Wing
- http://www.174fw.ang.af.mil/
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