{"id":2718,"date":"2018-12-07T09:28:06","date_gmt":"2018-12-07T14:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new2.thewinooski.com\/?p=2718"},"modified":"2019-02-18T08:44:03","modified_gmt":"2019-02-18T13:44:03","slug":"btv-seeks-to-boost-revenues-with-in-state-commuter-flights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/07\/btv-seeks-to-boost-revenues-with-in-state-commuter-flights\/","title":{"rendered":"BTV Seeks to Boost Revenues With In-State Commuter Flights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SOUTH BURLINGTON – Now that Burlington Intranational Airport (formerly Burlington INTERnational Airport)<\/a> no longer offers seasonal service to and from Toronto, BTV bigwigs are considering another way to boost revenue: in-state commuter flights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emilia Airheart, the director of aviation innovation at BTV, explained. \u201cWe\u2019re thinking of helicopter flights connecting Burlington Intranational and major employment centers around the state,\u201d she said. \u201cYou can install helipads anywhere there\u2019s a parking lot, so BTV could potentially fly commuters to any spot in Vermont, even to and from the weather stations on Mount Mansfield.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve got a real opportunity here,\u201d said Emilia Airheart. \u201cJust imagine soaring over all the stop-and-go traffic on Route 7 at 5:30 PM on a weekday. You could be home in, like, five minutes, and you can pretend you\u2019re in a news copter along the way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some commuters welcomed this idea. \u201cI\u2019m all for it,\u201d said Lorna Long-Ryder, who commutes daily between Essex and Montpelier. \u201cI have to wake up at 5:30 AM to get to work for 7. If I could hop on at a helipad behind the Essex Junction Amtrak station and fly to the capital, I\u2019d do it in a flash. Anything to avoid I-89 south in winter. French Hill in Williston stinks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Others, however, voiced objections. \u201cOkay, first of all, we already have a land-based local and commuter bus system,\u201d said Zippy Driver, chief transit planner at Green Mountain Transit. \u201cIt\u2019s much cheaper and more fuel-efficient than a fleet of helicopters. Who\u2019s going to pay for all that new infrastructure anyway? Second of all, no one commutes to the Mount Mansfield weather stations. I\u2019m pretty sure those are remotely operated.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Airheart remains undaunted. \u201cWe could even fly to South Canada<\/a>,\u201d she added. \u201cThen we\u2019d truly be an international airport again!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Canada had no comment on a potential helipad in their country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOUTH BURLINGTON – Now that Burlington Intranational Airport (formerly Burlington INTERnational Airport) no longer offers seasonal service to and from Toronto, BTV bigwigs are considering another […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[2,34,6],"tags":[26],"coauthors":[124],"class_list":["post-2718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-burlington","category-south-canada","category-vermont-life","tag-south-burlington"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/TWFI-2018_12_07.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8JVRF-HQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2720,"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions\/2720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thewinooski.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}