First, NFTA does not name prices, there would still be a “fare war”, granted enough airlines did even come to Niagara.
2nd, I’m all for improving Niagara, Yes, this was an expensive side project that does not directly immediately benefit the City, but it is impressive at the funding they received other than from the city alone. I think improvements to the previous terminal would have been a wiser investment.
3rd, there is a market for traffic here, mainly from Canadians. Next time you are at the Buffalo Airport, take note of how many Canadians are parked there. This saves them 1/2hr+ of driving time, and with more publicity, Canadians will think to book through it. Flights out of Hamilton or Toronto are ungodly expensive.
Finally, being a Pilot, I really don’t think this makes too much sense as far as location wise. You have a fairly busy airport serving a medium large size base (BUF apt). That is all that is needed for an area of this size. Being closer to the Fallls is a nice convenience, but there are already existing measures in place to get people from BUF to the falls, a bus that costs 2 - $3.
In terms of travel time by plane, the Niagara airport is only about 5 minutes flying time difference. Why would an airline want to restructure their whole program for an additional airport, where as they have one in place FIVE MINUTES south of there? This MAY bring in additional carriers that don’t currently serve BUF, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.
I do have high hopes for the Charter side of things, and low cost airlines. The MB direct and Florida routes are great, we want to go there, they want to see Niagara (and probably visit relatives up here, considering half of us moved there) Also, I’d love to see a trans-atlantic route brought in, the 10,000 ft runway is very accomodating, hope it works out!
