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Worcester Regional Airport is a public airport located three miles (5 km) west of the central business district of Worcester, a city in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The main airport property lies within Worcester and Leicester, with substantial supporting facilities in Paxton. Once owned by the City of Worcester, the airport has been owned and operated by the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) since June 2010. ==History== Worcester's entry into the world of aviation began in 1925, when city officials commissioned a study to examine suitable sites for the city's first airport. On the list of probable sites was the land owned by a wealthy local citizen, Whitin Whitall. In 1927, Whitall, independently of the city commission, set up an airport on his land in North Grafton, above sea level. This two-runway airport opened for leisure travel on October 12, 1927. As air travel became more popular throughout the country and Central Massachusetts, the question of airport expansion became the subject of a second study commissioned by the Worcester city government. The Grafton airport was deemed too small to accommodate the air travel needs of the region. The location of the present airport, Tatnuck Hill, an area that straddles the borders of Worcester, Leicester, and Paxton, was high on the commission's list. One problem noted by the commission and several prominent citizens was the weather: at above sea level, the Tatnuck site was often surrounded by fog. Despite this problem, the city eventually chose Tatnuck as the new site, and construction began in 1944. The airport was ceremoniously opened on May 4, 1946, and started regular passenger service one week later on May 10, 1946. The Grafton airport remained in operation until 1951, when the owners, due to the dwindling traffic, decided to dismantle the airport. The land was redeveloped as a residential neighborhood. Leicester Airport, a small private airfield also built during the first half-century of aviation, was active until the 1970s. It still sits, now mostly overgrown in the shadow of Worcester Regional. Millions of dollars were spent replacing the old terminal, which hosted a half-dozen airlines before its demolition. In the mid 1980s and early 1990s, major carriers, such as Piedmont, Northwest Airlines, Continental, and USAir all flew mainline jets into Worcester. In addition, smaller carriers, like New York Air and Presidential Airways also had jet service. The small terminal had two ground level jetways built to accommodate the growth. But one by one, those carriers left. A succession of second-tier air carriers have come and gone over the last decade. Allegiant Air began service to Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB) on December 22, 2005, using McDonnell-Douglas MD-80 type aircraft. The airline expanded to 4 flights per week in March 2006. Allegiant announced on August 22, 2006, that they would cut ties with the airport, citing high fuel costs and passenger loads in the 80% range as the reason for departure. The departure came as a huge surprise to the city as service was reported to be going great throughout Allegiant's entire tenure at the airport. On September 4, 2008, Direct Air announced they would begin service to Worcester beginning in November 2008, with flights from Orlando, FL and Fort Myers/Punta Gorda, FL. The flights were initially operated by Virgin America using Airbus A320 aircraft, however Direct Air was forced to return the aircraft in June 2009 to suffice Virgin's rapidly expanding domestic routes. Following this Direct Air began carrying out flights on Boeing 737-400's owned by Xtra Airways. Due to this being a wet-lease agreement, there were times where the aircraft was unavailable and other aircraft had to be chartered for the flights. Such examples include an Airbus A320 from USA 3000 and a Boeing 757 from North American Airlines. In March 2009, Direct Air added additional flights to Myrtle Beach, SC. In July 2010, Direct Air expanded their Worcester service further to West Palm Beach. The airline had further plans to launch flights to San Juan, Puerto Rico and Nassau, Bahamas but in March 2012 Direct Air suspended all operations and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy on April 12, 2012. 〔 〕 On April 3, 2013, it was announced that JetBlue will offer daily flights to Orlando, Florida and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, starting November 7, 2013.〔 〕 This came after over a year of negotiating with the airline including competitions among local residents to help advertise the city. This is the first mainline service out of Worcester in over a decade. The airline currently uses the 100 seat Embraer 190 aircraft out of the airport, but is planning to eventually fly the larger 150 seat Airbus A320 on Worcester routes once service has been established and the number of passengers is greater. With the airports current terminal facility JetBlue can operate two aircraft at a time with the pair of jetways and ticket counters. Air Florida had planned to fly out of Worcester at the beginning of 2015 as a charter airline, however the airline has yet to get off the ground. Worcester Regional Airport was used for shooting of the films ''Captain Phillips'', ''Knight and Day'' and ''The Judge''.〔Sheehan, Nancy. "Airport taking off with movie industry." Telegram & Gazette, Mar 23 2012.〕 On November 17, 2015, Rectrix Aviation opened a brand new FBO building and hangar in Worcester. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Worcester Regional Airport」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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